Employer Is MIA – Missing In Action – in the Work Comp Process

There is mounting interest in services for first week after accident report. As Rebecca Shafer has projected, as we move toward 2020, there will be more and more importance given to the first few hours after an accident. The first hour is the most critical, according to Shafer. The reason is obvious. Lag time with carriers is now over one month, more than enough time for a defense to collapse even before it’s mounted.

Let me just summarize the way it was in the first decade after the workers comp law passed in New York:

1. It was assumed the employer would make the payments and later seek reimbursement from the carrier. That happened.

2. It was assumed hearings would be rare and the carrier would not attend. A hearing would be an informal meeting with the employer and worker talking it out before an officer.

3. Medical testimony would be rare. Only traumatic workplace injuries were covered, only dangerous, heavy occupations were covered. Medical issues in the reported cases involved trying to connect non-traumatic conditions to an accident.

All that changed. Carriers insisted their investment was best protected by taking over the defense, although nothing in the law says they can do that. (WCxKit)

Hearings became the universal rule, not the exception. Attorneys looked for every excuse for more hearings and the system drifted toward the universal tar pit. Lawyers became essential for the worker. Unions acquired power by backing certain firms and feeding the work.

What changed everything? Taking the proactive role of the employer out of the claim process and giving it to a company that, quite literally, made its profit from the “float,” i.e., delay, delay, delay. Everyone associated with defense made their living the same way. Lawyers, doctors, investigators, rehab, agents, brokers. (WCxKit)

The employer was no longer part of the process.

I am presently involved with two efforts to bring rapid response by the employer to the process.

Author: Attorney Theodore Ronca is a practicing lawyer from Aquebogue, NY. He is a frequent writer and speaker, and has represented employers in the areas of workers’ compensation, Social Security disability, employee disability plans and subrogation for over 30 years. Attorney Ronca can be reached at 631-722-2100.

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