Reading Room

The problems of old age are worrying and are beginning to influence decision-makers on what to do with two major delivery systems in the United States. Both the Medicare system and the workers’ compensation medical delivery system are now ailing. The fiscal remedy may be their marriage.
 

The present economic downturn has been compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s or the recession of the 1980s.

Medical expenses in contested workers’ compensation cases are now a significant and troublesome issue resulting in uncertainty, delay, and potential future liability: the recent NJ Supreme Court decision, University of Mass. Memorial Hospital v. Christodoulou, 180 N.J. 334 (2004) has left the question of how to adjudicate medical benefits that were conditionally paid or paid in error. Presently there is no exclusively defined procedure to determine the allocation and apportionment of primary responsibility for unauthorized medical expenses and reimbursement.

 As the available workforce in the United States continues to decrease to historically low levels, disabled workers are being enticed to enter a trap which may lead them to jail. During the last quarter of 1999, the unemployment rate in the United States averaged 4.1%, creating a huge shortage of employable persons.