Wyoming case underscores challenges with fraud

• The Department of Workforce Services is putting an extra effort to combat workers’ compensation fraud after another recent case.
• DWS reaffirmed its dedication to combating fraudulent activities that undermine the health of the Compensation Trust Fund to provide financial support to individuals injured on the job, to assist in their recovery and return to employment.
• Klaus Paugsch received a three- to seven-year prison sentence for misrepresenting or falsifying statements to DWS.
• Paugsch returned to work after being injured without notifying DWS, and he continued to receive lost wage benefits. Paugsch fraudulently received $22,189.52 in benefits.
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Couple fighting for workers’ comp

• A Syracuse, New York, couple, Art and Nancy Hudson, had to hire a lawyer and endure several appeals over nearly 18 months after Art was denied compensation for medical bills due to him going into cardiac arrest while responding to a call.
• The couple is now working with local representatives and taking their case to the New York State Court of Appeals in the hopes that no one has to go through what they have experienced.
• When Art left for a routine call, she never imagined her daughter would receive a call that an on-duty injury that Nancy had heard come over the police scanner in their home was her husband.
• The family has now been locked in a bitter fight for workers’ compensation for more than a year.

Woman sues employer after getting hit with flare gun

• Tiffany Jones in the shoulder was hit with a flare gun while at work and her jacket caught fire and part of it melted to her skin in North Carolina.
• Jones was taken to the hospital with severe burns and bruising on her shoulder.
• Jones contacted her employer to file a workers’ compensation claim and was directed to someone in her HR department.
• After what Jones describes as several weeks of no assistance from her employer, Jones is still trying to get some help with her claim, medical bills, and lost wages.

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New Jersey warehouse worker injured

• The 31-year-old New Jersey worker was alert and conscious when his colleagues at Innovative Closet Designs freed him from beneath the debris.
• Responding officers rendered first aid to the victim, who was then tended to by Wyckoff Volunteer Ambulance members and paramedics.
• He was taken to St. Joseph’s University Medical Center with a cut on his head and possible injuries to his hip and leg.
• The incident is still under investigation
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