Isn’t it bad enough that you’ve been injured on the job, need medical care, and are worried about how to pay your bills? As a NY Workers’ Comp lawyer, I’ve witnessed may times how insurance companies take their sweet old time paying benefits that barely cover a claimant’s expenses and start sending the worker to ‘independent’ doctors in order to lower payments and stop medical care. And now, they are investigating you like a common criminal.
Don’t believe it happens? Well, I follow the insurance industry journals because you have to study your enemy in order to find out what they are doing . Guess what? Here is a recent article where the insurance journal is telling claims adjusters great websites to use to further investigate you – the lying, sneaky no good injured worker!
Their goal? Trying to find ways to accuse you of fraud (…in workers compensation, the definition of fraud is not what you think) and stop payments altogether.
I really get bugged out about this because frankly there is far more fraud committed by employers (such as misclassifying workers and not paying premiums) than employees – but more on that later. The reality is that once you have an accident and file a claim you are like a “bug under the microscope,” and everything and anything you do, even if its as innocent as apple pie, can be looked at in a way that could get you in trouble.
What you post on Facebook and Twitter, what you do when you go out shopping, what you say to a doctor and so many more things are under scrutiny. So be careful what you post and be aware that someone is always watching.