Workers' compensation benefits and shifting costs for occupational injury and illness

Details

• Personal Author:
  Leigh JP ; Marcin JP
• Description:
  BACKGROUND: Whereas national prevalence estimates for workers' compensation benefits are available, incidence estimates are not. Moreover, few studies address which groups in the economy pay for occupational injury and illness when workers' compensation does not. METHODS: Data on numbers of cases and costs per case were drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and National Council on Compensation Insurance data sets. Costs not covered by workers' compensation were estimated for private and public entities. RESULTS: Total benefits in 2007 were estimated to be $51.7 billion, with $29.8 billion for medical benefits and $21.9 billion for indemnity benefits. For medical costs not covered by workers' compensation, other (non-workers' compensation) insurance covered $14.22 billion, Medicare covered $7.16 billion, and Medicaid covered $5.47 billion. CONCLUSION: Incidence estimates of national benefits for workers' compensation were generated by combining existing published data. Costs were shifted to workers and their families, non-workers' compensation insurance carriers, and governments. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Disabled-workers Diseases Health-care Injuries Medical-services Medical-treatment Occupational-medicine Sociological-factors Worker-health
• ISSN:
  1076-2752
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant ; Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  445-450
• Volume:
  54
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20041255
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Med 2012 Apr; 54(4):445-450
• Contact Point Address:
  J. Paul Leigh, PhD, Department of Public Health Sciences, UC Davis Medical School, One Shields Ave. Davis, CA 95616
• Email:
  pleigh@ucdavis.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  University of California - Davis
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050601
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• End Date:
  20100531
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:62410b388ddcd4259a0522500f7426e5aeb2a942cf8f5456a98189a0163fb7bded92304a5baca74ad12262396dc25525da8fcfe125882408c5eff65da726bbad
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/193860/cdc_193860_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 107.21 KB ]