I’ll post this in two parts read them, again the i-c putting the i-w through hell with the games they play.



Each year approximately 500,000 occupational illnesses and injuries are reported to the New York State Workers' Compensation Board. Of these, workers’ compensation insurance carriers challenge several thousand claims for occupational disease for reasons that frequently defy close medical analysis and too often defy common sense.

With millions of dollars in profit at stake, insurance carriers:

*Challenge valid occupational disease claims, which results in workers often failing to pursue their cases or eventually settling for less than they are entitled to;

*Claim that many workers are less disabled than they are or that they are not disabled at all.

*Raise issues contradicting workers' claims that their injuries and illnesses are a result of work.

As a consequence, injured and sick workers are often forced into prolonged wrangling with insurance companies in an attempt to get their claims established. The process is so tortured, convoluted and demeaning that many workers do not file for compensation or become so discouraged that they fail to pursue their valid claims. Rather than attempt to use the workers' compensation system, many workers use their own health insurance -- if they have any -- to get needed medical treatment. Many others rely on welfare or social security disability. In either case, the insurance companies and employers externalize the costs of job-related injuries and force the public to pick up these expenses through taxpayer-funded social welfare programs and higher medical insurance premiums.What is particularly unfair is the routine challenge by insurance carriers of workers' claims for occupational disease and frequent disputes over the degree of workers' disabilities in cases that have already been established. The challenges over occupational disease can often mean, de facto, the cutting-off or slashing of wage-replacement benefits and medical treatment before any hearing takes place.