Employer Reporting Project
Survey of Reasons for Delayed Reporting of Claims
March 27, 2007
Research and Data Services
–Information for Informed Decisions—
Jackie Hauser, BA
Research Analyst
Lisann Rolle, MBA
Workers’ Compensation Research Manager
Contact: Jackie Hauser, haus235@lni.wa.gov
Washington State Dept. of Labor & Industries
P. O. Box 44320
Olympia WA 98504-4320
WA – Dept of Labor & Industries
Report Date: March 27, 2007
Research and Data Services
Survey and Data Extract: Fall, 2006
Information for Informed Decisions
Data Source: Data Warehouse Tables and Survey Data
Page 1
Employer Reporting Project
Survey of Reasons for Delayed Reporting of Claims
Introduction
In 2005 and 2006, the Washington State Legislature, in SHB 1918 and SHB 2537, directed
the Department of Labor and Industries to report on the reasons that injured workers failed
to report their claims promptly.
This report presents the findings of a survey of injured workers conducted during the late
summer of 2006 to discover the reasons for delayed filing of claims.
The Department of Labor and Industries contracted with the Gilmore Research Group to
administer a department-provided survey to a random sample of injured workers with
allowed state fund compensable claims.
Included in the sample provided to Gilmore were records of:
• workers with an injury date in 2005, where, if provided, the employer indicated more
than five days before the employee reported the claim to them AND,
• where, if provided, the injured worker indicated it was more than five days before
they reported their claim to their employer.
• Note: These are not mandatory fields on the report of accident; if they were left
blank, this exclusion criterion was ignored.
Excluded from the sample were hearing loss and COHE claims. Finally, the selection was
further limited to those claims with more than seven days between injury and receipt
of the claim by the d