Current Issues in Workers' Compensation

Current trends in workers' compensation.

Workers’ Compensation and Older Workers

After rising sharply in the 1980s, workers’ compensation costs and benefits declined during the 1990s. The recent decline may reflect, in part, a decline in the availability and adequacy of these benefits. Workers in the second half of their work lives are particularly likely to be affected by these changes. Although workers’ compensation continues to compensate workers for acute short-term inj...

Recent trends in workers' compensation.

Workers' compensation provides cash benefits and medical care to employees who are injured on the job and survivor benefits to the dependents of workers whose deaths result from work-related incidents. Workers' compensation programs in the 50 states and the District of Columbia and federal programs together paid $56.0 billion in medical and cash benefits in 2004, an increase of 2.3 percent over...

Preserving workers' dignity in workers' compensation systems: an international perspective.

BACKGROUND Workers' compensation systems are among the most generous disability insurance systems in North America, although they are also known to be potentially adversarial and may have iatrogenic effects on claimants. This article examines issues to be considered to ensure fair compensation provided in a way that respects the dignity of workers. METHODS An overview of the literature on cha...

The battle over workers' compensation.

Faced with lower profits and rapidly increasing premium costs in the 1980s, insurers and employer organizations cleverly parlayed the public perception of worker fraud and abuse in the workers' compensation system (that they helped to create) into massive legislative changes. Over the last decade, state legislators and governors, Republican and Democrat alike, have jumped on this bandwagon, one...