Why Are There Waiting Periods for Indemnity?

Three million work injuries occur a year, some 900,000 of them (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) involving at least one work day of lost time. We know hardly anything in a systematic way of the experience of these workers with their injuries, including what they think of the workers' compensation system. They are experiencing a system that in key elements is rarely rethought, including the so-called waiting period for indemnity benefits. To be sure, there have been some surveys, such as by the Workers Compensation Research Institute, which recently highlighted the importa...