This is a phenomenon more common than you think. People always hurt at work. Therefore, the government has a compensation fund for workers and employers are obliged to create money put into the fund on behalf of each employee. This helps pay for damages that injured at work.
The workers compensation is established in every state. Some states have a much larger incidence of the employees who get hurt than others. In those states the rate that employers must pay is also greater. However, one reprieve for some employers in these states is the fact that they look at the industry average rather than the state average. Those who are in industries that have a higher average are the more dangerous jobs by nature.
In Iowa the average amount of work related injuries is less than the national average. This is likely due to the types jobs that are predominate in Iowa.
When the workers compensation of a state becomes suspicious that someone is faking an injury in order to get paid for time off that they are not deserving of, then they hire an attorney who specialized in workers compensation claims. These attorneys have usually spent a lot of time as another type of an attorney and have then found some satisfaction prosecuting employees that are ripping off the system. They know that it is the tax payers that are really getting ripped off.