Work comp on a game show

Cathy Cashwell (an ironic last name) learned the hard way that work comp fraud doesn't pay. At least it doesn't pay when you do the fraud on TV.

Cashwell was a postal worker who claimed work comp benefits based on a shoulder injury. The only problem was that she appeared as a contestant on The Price is Right when she was supposedly disabled. And her allegedly injured shoulder looked just fine when she spun the Big Wheel twice.

This is one of the more agonizingly obvious examples of work comp fraud I've heard about in my decades as an actuary. The station carrying the Cashwell story brought on a private investigator who said that many comp claims are completely fraudulent. The percentage of phony claims is disputed, but nobody questions that it's substantial.

Cashwell has pled guilty and will learn her sentence in September. Televised fraud is pretty foolish...in her case, anyway.