COVID-19’s impact on Florida Workers’ Comp

Firm News

Florida’s Division of Financial Services / Division of Workers’ Compensation recently published a report on COVID-19’s impact on WC. The highlights are summarized below.

Major takeaway: This report should provide some reassurance for Florida employers and carriers, as the number of claims, coupled with difficulties in proving a workplace origin of infection, do not seem to indicate that COVID claims alone have had a major impact.

3,807 lost time virus-related claims filed from start of pandemic through 5/31/20.
83% of claims were from health care workers (45.7%) and protective services sector/first responders (37.6%).
$3.2 million in benefits paid – 2.9% of total WC benefits paid through 5/31/20.
Service industry workers represented 9.1% of claims, office workers 6.1% and airline workers 1.5%.
Self-insured governments paid the largest amount — $1.8 million.
Private insurers paid $856,484.
1,718 claims denials — 1,695 total denials and 23 partial denials.
Nineteen of the claim denials were in the health care space.
March – 1,949 claims filed.
April – 1,558 claims filed.
May – 300 claims filed.
63% of all claims filed were in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Through May 31st, only four PFBs had been filed.
The report also provides data on telemedicine visits since the pandemic hit.

To see the complete COVID-19 Dashboard, please visit:
Florida Division of Workers’ Compensation – Reports

Highlights from the FDS report were summarized from an article by Louise Esola in Business Insurance News.
Business Insurance June 9-2020 “Most COVID-19 comp claims in health care, first responders”