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Published on: February 16, 2011
Barriers to workers' compensation and medical care for injured Personal Assistance Services workers
Teresa Scherzer1, Nicole Wolfe
1Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, 3333 California Street, Suite 455, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA. teresa.scherzer@ucsf.edu
Objectives:
We documented barriers to workers' compensation and injury-related medical care faced by homecare or Personal Assistance Services (PAS) workers. We explored differences between independent providers and agency-employed workers.
Methods:
We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a diverse sample of 38 injured workers. Participants were primarily female and racial-ethnic minorities.
Results:
Most participants (82%) were independent providers. Common barriers to reporting injury included commitments to clients and financial pressure. Unlike agency employees, many independent providers knew little about workers' compensation eligibility and injury reporting procedures, and frequently were given "the runaround" by the social service bureaucracy when they attempted to report injury and access injury-related medical care. Among independent providers, delays in filing a claim and receiving timely medical attention were common.
Conclusions:
The lack of a traditional employment infrastructure has important implications for vulnerable workers' health and the sustainability of consumer-directed PAS programs. We provide recommendations for improving workers' access to workers' compensation and injury-related medical care.
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