Workers’ Comp Systems Poised for Deluge of Covid-19 Claims

Employee Covid-19 infections at businesses reopening despite the ongoing pandemic could trigger a flood of workers’ compensation claims, potentially overwhelming some state systems, law professors said.

Workers’ compensation systems that process injury and illness claims seeking cash and medical benefits generally don’t have the bandwidth to handle surges of claims that insurers or employers contest—which may become the norm with Covid-19 claims, the scholars said.

“Insurers have a tremendous incentive to contest those claims,” said Thomas Eaton, a University of Georgia law professor who led the Georgia Governor’s Workers’ Compensation Review Commission. “When they wrote the premiums, this is not ...