NIOSH Center for Workers' Compensation Studies (CWCS)

About CWCS

In 2013, NIOSH established the Center for Workers’ Compensation Studies (CWCS) to integrate NIOSH’s traditional research efforts aimed at preventing worker injury and illness with workers’ compensation efforts aimed at providing medical care and wage benefits to workers with a work-connected injury or illness.

In 1970, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act because “personal injuries and illnesses arising out of work situations impose a substantial burden upon, and are a hindrance to, interstate commerce in terms of lost production, wage loss, medical expenses, and disability compensation payments.” In establishing the CWCS, NIOSH believes that increased efforts need to be made by the public and private sectors to better integrate the injury prevention and injury compensation research and practice communities to the purpose of protecting the health and safety of the American worker and the economic vitality of the Nation.

In addition to sponsoring educational conferences in 2009 and 2012 on the use of workers’ compensation data for worker safety and health, the NIOSH CWCS is interested in conducting collaborative research with commercial insurers, self-insured entities, academic investigators, state and federal workers’ compensation administrators, and with organizations such as the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) Currently, CWCS researchers are conducting integrated prevention and compensation research across a wide range of industry sectors, including:

• Construction
• Healthcare and social assistance
• Manufacturing
• Public safety
• Services
• Mining
• Transportation
• Warehousing
• Wholesale and retail trade