But employer fraud against claimants and insurance companies went untouched. They point out that the stereotype of fraud was the PR money of the insurance industry and employers. To whip up public support for reform, the insurance industry took its case to TV stations and newspapers across the nation. A powerful weapon was videotape culled from private investigators showing workers cheating small businesses. Yet an insurance research firm puts the cost of claimant fraud at a bare 1.9 percent of all premiums paid.
Health insurance turns down workers comp cases.
Workers comp insurance typically delays treatment to force claimants to settle for pennies on the dollar. While an appeal may reach an administrative law judge eventually, the appeals process may take years, and the claimant can only collect the percent of his wages he was entitled to in the first place. It's easy to blame the disability on something else. Insurers cometimes shop patients around to a series of IMEs, flying them out of state and putting them up at motels. Mary Jeffords found falsification when she got two different versions of the same doctor's report.