Jay H. Bernstein, Esq.

A FAILED SYSTEM OF HEALTH CARE DELIVERY: The Workers Compensation System in New Jersey.

ARTICLE

Cite: (Law Review) 28 Rutgers L. Rec. 3 (May 1, 2004)

The New Jersey Workers Compensation System supports systemic medical malpractice in all but name: medical decisions are made by unqualified, non- licensed, laymen: insurance adjusters, lawyers, and judges. “Judges of Compensation”, many with no litigation, workers compensation, or medical background, decide whether a worker will have surgery or not. They try their best to be fair, but their decisions, by necessity, are arbitrary and unscientific. Your chance for a course of treatment depends on the luck of the draw, i.e.—which judge you are assigned.

There must be a more civilized, economically efficient way to deliver health care to our workers. There must be a better way. Possibly national health care. Our present day workers’ compensation system, copied from a 19th century German model, is medieval and wrong. The workers’ compensation system, originally intended to end litigation, and provide fast treatment and payment with a “no fault” approach, has failed. Codified originally as a civil code enactment – the workers’ compensation system has become stymied and entangled in a growing body of precedent and case law and is grinding to a halt.