The Impact Of Medical Care After A Work Injury
As you might imagine, being hurt by a work-related accident can be difficult. You may be in pain from the injury while also experiencing financial ramifications. You probably know that your medical care is important, but it also plays a huge role in your overall workers' compensation claim. Read on and find out more.
Get to a Doctor
Not everyone is injured enough to arrive at the emergency room in an ambulance. However, you must seek help as soon as possible after being injured. If you are suffering from an occupational illness or a long-term stress injury like carpal tunnel syndrome, seek help as soon as you realize that you are unable to work anymore. Keep these things in mind as you seek medical help:
- You can probably go to your own doctor or the emergency room for the first visit. However, the workers' compensation insurer in charge of your benefits may assign you to a doctor after that.
- Your first medical visit is the beginning of your workers' compensation claim. Inform everyone during the visit that you were hurt in the course of your employment. Work injuries are billed and coded differently, and you don't want to cause any confusion about who is responsible for paying your bill.
- You should not be billed for anything related to the work injury. If you get a bill, contact your workers' compensation insurer right away.
Follow Orders
Normally, those hurt in an accident or feeling ill will try their best to follow medical advice. However, this is no ordinary medical situation. If you don't take your medical care seriously, you might end up regretting it later. Not only can you improve your chances of getting better by following medical advice, but you are also preventing problems with your claim. Consider this, if the insurer has reason to believe that you were not taking care of yourself after the work injury, they could deny you benefits and make a settlement more difficult to obtain.
Watch for Problems
Be watchful when it comes to the below issues:
- After your benefits begin, you are ordered to back to work but you are certain that you are not ready.
- Your employer is threatening to fire you if you don't return to work immediately.
- Your doctor says you need to be referred to a specialist, but the insurer is denying that request.
- Unfortunately, your injury is not healing, and you could be afflicted with a permanent injury.
Contact a workers' compensation lawyer to learn more. They can help you assert your rights and fight to get you the benefits you deserve.