Having workers compensation provides you with many benefits that you will end up needing at one point in time or another, especially if you’re planning on working at your current place of employment long term, and especially if you feel that the environment which surrounds it can be detrimental to your physical health. It’s important to look out for yourself, especially in circumstances like these, because it’s not that likely that another individual will do it for you. Granted, most employers try their best to provide their employees with decent benefits and coverage.
Workers compensation focuses on providing benefits to you in the case that you are injured either at work or while performing duties or tasks for your job/employer even while being away from the physical edifice of the office (like even if your boss sends you overseas for business). Benefits provided by workers compensation include medical benefits, disability benefits, death benefits, as well as monetary compensation.
Medical Benefits
It is your employer’s responsibility to provide you with medical treatment via insurance carriers. This medical treatment includes (and is not limited to):
- Medical specialists and doctors
- Medical treatment and care pertaining to the injury including:
- Hospitalization
- Medical tests
- Prostheses
- Doctor’s visits
- Physical therapy
- Prescription drugs
- Reimbursement for having to travel to and from the pharmacy and your doctor
HELPFUL HINTS:
- Report your illness/injury right away. Your employer may provide you with an authorized doctor when the accident occurs, but it is the insurance carrier who will need to authorize your follow-up treatments.
- In the case your injury results in you being taken to the ER for emergency treatment, be sure the doctors and nurses are aware that you have been hurt on the job; provide them with a name and contact number of your employer or insurance carrier.
- Do not attempt to seek medical care or treatment from your private doctor. It must be the insurance carrier who authorizes the doctor for your treatment.
Monetary Compensation
TEMPORARY DISABILITY BENEFITS
You are entitled to two types of temporary disability benefits during the phase of your recovery, to account for lost wages: Temporary total disability, and temporary partial disability.
Temporary Total disability (TTD):
- If, according to your doctor, you cannot continue to work as a result of your work-related illness or injury, you could receive an amount totaling 66-2/3% of your standard wages at the moment you were hurt, which is subject to a statewide maximum reimbursement amount.
- You will only be receiving temporary disability benefits if you suffer from disability for more than 21 days.
- If injuries are severe, you may be entitled to 80% of your standard wages for up to six months after your accident.
Temporary Partial disability (TPD):
- If your doctor allows you to continue working, but under certain restrictions, you can be entitled to TP under the condition that you are unable to generate 80% of the standard wages you were previously earning.
- You are entitled to 104 total weeks of TPD.
- If you have been seriously injured, there is only so much recovery and improvement that can take place. If, after Maximum Medical Improvement, you do not improve further, you will be evaluated by your doctor who will ultimately place restrictions on you in terms of how much and what kind of work you can continue to do. You will further be evaluated for an impairment rating, which, if more than 0%, will entitle you to a certain amount of money to compensate for your financial losses.
IMPAIRMENT BENEFITS (IB)
PERMANENT TOTAL DISABILITY BENEFITS (PTD)
Once you have reached Maximum Medical Improvement, chances are you are not going to be improving much further (however, this is your authorized doctor’s call, not yours). If your injury is that severe and you are unable to continue working as a result of permanent disability, you are entitled to receive permanent total disability benefits.
DEATH BENEFITS
In the case of work-related death within the first year of the accident, or in the case of five consecutive years of disability, you are entitled to benefits which cover the following:
- Funeral expenses
- Compensation to dependents (as defined by law)
- Educational benefits to your surviving spouse
