Obesity is an issue you'll read about often on this blog. It is an issue for concern on many levels, but increasingly pertinent in workers' compensation, specifically in terms of how injuries tend to be more complex for obese patients. See our earlier posts on obesity.
Our friends at Workers' Comp Insider, a weblog by Lynch Ryan, recently posted this article on obesity. Jon Coppelman discusses a couple of recent court rulings on the matter of obesity and goes on to make some good points: potential for unintended consequences and increased discrimination for obese workers.
For more reading on the topic, here's an article by Teresa Long titled Obesity's Link to Diabetes...Heavy Burden on Employers found on WorkersCompensation.com; this article by Insurance Journal titled Workers' Compensation Industry Worried About Obesity Claims; and check out the Economic Consequences of Obesity one of many reports on the topic found on the Centers for Disease Control website.
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