The first issue the work comp adjuster must address is the age of the occupational disease. The adjuster normally deals with injuries that occurred a day ago, a week ago or even a month earlier. However, the occupational disease claim is quite different. The occupational disease may have started ten years, twenty years or even thirty years prior. Most occupational diseases are latent, meaning the employee does not know precisely when they began to suffer the affects of the disease and the disease has been progressively getting worse over a period of time.
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In the states where the original employer or all the prior employers can be held responsible for the occupational disease, the work comp adjuster must do a thorough time-line investigation. The work comp adjuster should start with questioning the employee in detail as to the names of every employer in their adult life and the dates they worked for each employer.
The adjuster loves to hear “I started at XYZ Company when I was 18, and have worked there all my life”, as it eliminates hours of work locating and contacting former employers to advise them of the occupational disease claim. Of course, that also makes the one and only employer fully responsible for all the cost of the occupational disease. On the other hand the adjuster cringes when she hears “well, I have worked for 12 different coal mining companies in the last 40 years and I don’t know when my black lung disease [pneumoconiosis] started”, for many days of research lie ahead for the adjuster.
Also, in the states where all prior employers can be held responsible or where the employee worked when the disease started, there is another obstacle for the work comp adjuster. After locating and contacting the prior employers, the adjuster needs to know who the work comp insurers were during the time period the employee worked at the other companies. In the industries where occupational diseases are well known, such as asbestosis, the former employers will know exactly when each work comp insurers policy started and stopped. However, in industries where occupational diseases are less common, the employer (who has a totally different staff and record keeping system than they did 3 decades ago) may have a difficult time identifying who their work comp insurer was 30 years ago. Knowing who insured who, and when, is very important for the allocation of damages in the states where damages are allocated among the various previous insurers.
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