Phony disability claims by US employees studied

Highly paid federal workers can make more money sitting home claiming to be disabled than they can by going to work.That is one of the aspects of federal disability law which Congress aims to change after investigating the fraud-plagued Office of Workers' Compensation Program.

A Senate subcommittee's inquiry into rip-offs in the $800 million-a-year program focuses on fraud by doctors who submit phony bills that are rubber-stamped by Labor Department employees and on cheating by government employee recipients. Investigators testified that over the past seven years federal employment and the number of on-the-job injury claims have stayed the same, but benefit payments have risen 300 percent.