Employers need to be more involved in injured workers’ rehabilitation

A doctor that treats workers’ compensation injuries recently gave a seminar that I attended. In the beginning of this seminar he gave some interesting statistics regarding injured workers, included here:

– 50% of injured workers who have been off of work for between 6 months to 1 year never return to work

– 90% of injured workers who have been off of work more than 1 year never return to work

– 85% of costs of all workers’ compensation claims come from only 5% of claims

– 40% of the costs from all claims come from delayed recovery

– 10% of injured workers actually perform their prescribed physical therapy exercises at home

Not only do these claims have an impact on the employers who the worker was working for, but they also have social impacts to all of us when the worker can not or will not continue to work after the injury. These social impacts include a drain on disability insurance, medicaid / medicare, and other welfare programs offered by state and federal laws. Employers need to design and implement Return-to-Work programs and show concern for the injured worker. As employers do this work related injury costs should be reduced and the burden to the employer and society as a whole can be softened.