Abstract
Treatment of workers' compensation claimants involves more than textbook management of illness or injury. There can be twice as much paperwork and considerably more contact with people and organizations outside the patient's family. Should the patient's claim be anything other than straightforward, contention can mount and the physician can suddenly find himself uncomfortably surrounded by claim procedures, uncertainty about occupational etiology and a financially and emotionally stressed patient. This article explores the prevalence and degree of difficulties which arise through physician handling of workers' compensation patients.