Taking a look at a survey out of New Hampshire, it looks like workers may not be utilizing workers’ compensation insurance as much as they could. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey shows that just over half of work related injuries are treated by the state’s workers’ compensation system, and the rest are treated by things like private insurers, Medicare, Medicaid or other payers.

The survey asked 13,993 workers if they’d had injuries at work that were serious enough to get medical help and of the respondents, 280 people or 4.7 percent said they had. Just 53.4 percent of those cases were paid for fully by workers’ compensation. Those paid for by either Medicare, Medicaid, or partially by workers’ comp accounted for 27.45 percent, and personal insurance paid for the remaining 19.49 percent. Of those that responded they’d had a serious injury, about one fifth did not have health insurance on their own. A significant amount of those who had responded that they had a serious injury at work had less education and lower income levels, and many worked in the accommodation or food service industry, as well as construction, manufacturing or health care. Some of these jobs utilize more contractors or self-employed workers who may not be covered under workers’ comp.

The number of injuries who needed medical help could be even higher than that because we know some work injuries go unreported. And those that are unreported are definitely not paid for by workers’ compensation. Workers may be afraid to report their injury or do not think their injury stems from work (chronic back pain for instance) and if they do not report it then if they do get it treated it falls on their insurance, their family or government programs to pay for it. Though it is illegal some employers may not have workers’ compensation insurance which could also put their employees in a position to have to pay for injuries on their own. This is not a trend limited to New Hampshire either; the median range across the states for injuries that were treated with workers’ compensation insurance is just 61%.