After the American with Disabilities Act came into effect in the early 1990’s, many states began restricting or eliminating access to their worker compensation claims records. These states felt they could not protect their citizens’ right to privacy and nondiscrimination if the claims information remained available to third parties.

While incidents of claims fraud are still prevalent, in states that restrict access, the only people who can access a history of worker compensation claims is the person to whom the claim(s) belong; and, an employer (or representative) who is involved in a currently disputed claim.  In other words, in these states, employers can’t search an employee or prospective employee’s history of claims until the person becomes employed and files a claim.

Currently, more states still allow access to claims histories than states that do not. However, the ADA prevents an employer from checking past claims on a prospective employee, unless a conditional job offer exists.  If the conditional job offer exists, the search for past claims should be part of an overall medical review and physical examination that is required because of the physical nature of job.

Certain states still allow third parties to search their indexes, but the states have not updated their index in recent years.  For example, Maryland last updated their index in August of 1998 and has decided to discontinue updating the index indefinitely.  Iowa last updated their index in the first quarter of 2000 and is expected to update their files again in May of this year.  Michigan and Mississippi updated their index in the last half of 1999 and have not decided if they will continue to add new data.