Report: More Than Half of COVID Claims Initially Denied
Friday, November 13, 2020 | 0
More than half of the 425 workers’ compensation claims for COVID-19 that have been filed in Hawaii since February were initially denied pending investigation, according to a report by Honolulu Civil Beat.
The newspaper reports 230 out of 425 claims were denied, equal to a denial rate of just under 55%.
Bill Kunstman, a spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, told the newspaper that typically, fewer than 10% of comp claims are denied pending further investigation. He said the higher denial rate could be the result of employers and carriers wanting additional time to determine where a worker was exposed to the new coronavirus.
“When someone breaks their leg at work, it’s pretty difficult for somebody to deny that that occurred at work,” he said. “A virus is a little bit different.”
Kunstman said employers and carriers automatically approved COVID-19 claims in the early days of the pandemic. He said that stopped as the virus spread and the number of claims increased.
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