Workers’ compensation scams are among the common fraud cases in
workplaces. In America, billions of dollars are claimed falsely by
employees who would wish to profit in dodgy ways. Michael LeRoy Orlando adds - Workers compensation
insurance was established to provide monetary compensation to employees
who get in the line of duty. This benefit helps pay for any lost wages
and medical expenses an employee incurs while they receive treatment.
While
most employees are honest, a minority will go to any lengths to come up
with false claims and scams. For employers, such scams are driving up
the price of premiums and draining financial resources, which sometimes
forces businesses to let go of honest workers.
Motives
The
desire to get free money is one of the motives behind workers'
compensation scams. Corrupt workers have numerous ways they can achieve
this. Some will get injured off the job, but claim to have suffered the
injury at work to get the medical expenses covered. Others will inflate
injuries while on the job – a slight ankle roll for example – but insist
on the injury being so severe as to require compensation. Still others
will resort to faking injuries completely or bring up old injuries that
never healed (a bad knee for instance) to claim compensation.
Employers
have to be proactive in providing a safe work environment for workers.
Also important is the need to seek professional legal advice that
communicates the company will not tolerate fraud of any kind.
Experienced Attorney Michael LeRoy Orlando currently is the managing Fulmer LeRoy &
Albee. He attained his Juris doctorate from Florida State University.
