Claims suppression

Dionne and St-Mkhd also found that higher-income workers were more likely to extend their WC daims for back problems. This is consistent with the reduced-claim-suppression hypothecs, dnee greater income partially buffers workers from the costs of filing. 

Claims suppression as an employer response to compensation costs... 

Claims management is a legitimate employer response to compensation costs, even though it has nothing to do with improving OHS performance. There are also illegitimate responses, one of which is claims suppression. Consider the following case. 

The multiple causes of claims suppression a clothing industry example... 

The building subcontractor referred to above was evidently involved in an active and deliberate process of claims suppression in order to maintain his near perfect compensation record and his low compensation premium. At times, however, the phenomenon of claims suppression is more complex it may result from the simultaneous operation of a number of influences, with employer interest in minimising compensation costs only an implicit factor. 

It should be noted that unscmpulous employers are likely to find all sorts of devious ways of responding to the premium incentive schemes designed by the compensation authorities, quite apart from straightout claims suppression or contestation. One of the more ingenious is described in the 1990-91 Annual Report of the Victorian Accident Compensation Commission (p. 17). At that time claims based on a recurrence of an old injury or on a second injury were excluded from a firm s experience for the purpose of calculating premiums. This was, in part, to encourage employers to take employees back before they had fully recovered. It may also have reflected the belief that such workers were in some way... 

Steelworkers has had only one compensation claim in nine years, a man who was off work for six months following a fall in which he broke his shoulder. But this apparently excellent record is deceptive. Robbie knows that claims are likely to increase his premium. He therefore engages in claims suppression. In particular, he avoids claims by getting liis men to take paid sick leave when they injure themselves. This means that there is no correlation between Robbie s compensation premium and the number of injuries his workers experience. There is thus no way that compensation costs can act as a safety incentive in Robbie s case. 

Several features of this story deserve to be emphasised by way of conclusion. First, it is very clear that workers compensation costs exerted no pressure for safety at any stage, partly because of the structure of employment and partly because of the problem of claims suppression. It would thus be foolish to place any reliance at aU on compensation as a mechanism for ensuring safety in this industry. 

There might be under-reporting of minor-medium severity injuries due to the inability of the owner/manager to take time off in a small business eg. studies indicate that farmers only report serious injuries (Larsson, 1990b). There might be potential claims suppression due to perceptions on the experience rating aspects of the premium system. Empirical material on the qualitative aspects of small business decision-making in relation to safety is scarce. 

In 1927 Putochin studied the effect of temperature on the nature of the products formed when the formylation reaction was carried out in benzene and observed that 1-formyl derivatives were the major products obtained at low temperatures, whereas the 3-formyl derivatives predominated at higher temperatures. Britton et al. in 1947 claimed that the formation of the 3 -formylindole derivative is probably favored, relative to the alternate 1-formylation process, by elevated temperatures and pressures.However, it was apparently not possible to suppress completely the formation of the 1-formyl derivatives and yields of the order of 40% of both products were usually obtained. 

In addition to carbonates and/or phosphates, a variety of substances have also been used to act as sludge conditioners —e.g. starches, lignins, polyacrylates etc. Other substances, such as nitrites and sulphates are claimed to have some value in the suppression of caustic cracking (see Section 5.1). 

Di-D-fructose dianhydrides have been claimed to promote the growth of bifidobacteria in vitro.134 Bifidobacterium spp. are found in the large intestines of most vertebrates.135 The benefits attributed to the presence of a healthy population of bifidobacteria in the gut include inhibition of carcinogenesis,136 suppression of putrefactive substances,137 lowering of blood pressure and blood... 

Coughing is a useful physiologic device utilized to clear the respiratory tract of foreign substances and excessive secretions. Coughing, however, does not always serve a useful purpose but can rob the patient of sleep. A number of agents are available to suppress this. Many of these are narcotic and have an undesirable abuse potential. One of the agents available which is claimed to be nonnarcotic is amicibone (45). The synthesis involves base-catalyzed alkylation of benzyl cyclohexan-ecarboxylate (44) with p-hexamethyleneiminoethyl chloride a reaction which may go through an aziridinium intermediate. 

The work with Cl Acid Yellow 129 used only unilamellar vesicles. The liposomes again suppressed exhaustion but increased dye-fibre bonding, leading to better fastness properties. It is claimed that liposomes can be used to control the rate of exhaustion. 

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