In today's weak economic environment companies are adjusting by slowing production, transferring operations to other locations, discontinuing operations and services, reducing staff and even closing facilities. When these company actions occur, there is a greater risk of the following employee actions, which can impact a company's workers' compensation, general liability and product liability insurance premiums and cost of business for many years. When people are laid off, for example, fraud incidents increase. Twenty-four percent of Americans believe it is alright to overstate insurance claims, e.g. claiming two sets of golf clubs in the trunk when their car is stolen. This is called padding the claims or making up a deductible and it increases 22% to 40% during times of economic strain. Four things that qualify as fraud 1. Someone must make a false representation. 2. Misrepresentation of the material, made with knowledge of or reckless disregard for the truth. 3. Misrepresentation made with the intent of inducing the other party to act or refrain from acting which results in the other party purchasing the good or service. 4. Actions must result in damages. How big is the fraud problem in the U.S.? 1. Costs the United States $80 billion annually. 2. Each family pays $950 extra to cover fraud costs. What is the difference between hard fraud and soft fraud? 1. Hard fraud is deliberate attempt to either stage or invent an accident, event, injury, theft, fire or other type of loss such as planning to stage a fall at work in order to collect workers' compensation benefits. (workersxzcompxzkit) 2. Soft fraud is when the opportunity for fraud occurs when the policy holder or claimant exaggerates a legitimate claim, such as claiming prior damages to a car after an accident that caused different damages. TO DOWNLOAD OR LISTEN TO FREE AUDIO PODCAST click here: http://www.workerscompkit.com/gallagher/mp3 By: Anthony Van Gorp, private investigator with 25 years experience.
Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers' Compensation costs, including airlines, health care, manufacturing, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. He can be contacted at: Robert_Elliott@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
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