It can be a devastating experience to be injured at your workplace. The long term and immediate impact of sustaining a critical injury can affect your financial, physical and mental health. These debilitating and crippling upshots of the workplace accidents are the main reasons behind the existence of worker’s compensation insurance.
Although worker’s compensation is something that is offered to injured employees, yet the entire procedure of winning a claim can get difficult. The selfish, money-hungry insurance companies try their best to pay you less than what you deserve as compensation.
Winning can be an arduous task but that doesn’t make it impossible. Would you like to know how to fight a worker’s compensation claim in order to win? If yes, keep reading.
- Account for your injury instantly
As soon as you’re injured at your workplace, the foremost step to do is to inform your boss about it. As per the state laws, workers need to give a notice about their injuries to their reporting heads within a definite time. In case you fail to report within this time limit, you may lose out on your worker’s compensation claim benefits.
- Choose to change your health professionals
As per the law of worker’s compensation claim, workers are required to treat themselves with a doctor who is selected by the respective insurance firm. However, you may be subject to a conflict of interest as these doctors usually don’t have your best interests in mind since they’re paid by the insurance companies. These doctors may reduce the extent of your treatment so that there’s not much that the insurance company needs to pay. Hence, it is advised that you change doctors.
- Get yourself treated very soon
Soon after the injury, you should get yourself instantly treated medically. When you seek fast medical attention, this can lead to higher chances of full recovery. These documents serve the purpose of rightful medical proof in your worker’s compensation claim by describing your accident, the wounds that you got and the restrictions that you have physically. In case of delayed treatment, you give a chance to the insurance companies to argue that you were not seriously injured.
- You’ll be called for independent medical examinations
Besides a regular appointment with a doctor, you would also have to focus on getting an independent medical examination (IME). The insurance firm will appoint a doctor who conducts few tests, checks all your medical records and gives you a report. This report will give you details on your diagnosis, the restrictions (if any) you have to follow at work and the link between the work and the injury. However, you need to remember the fact that insurance companies schedule IMEs only when they wish to reduce your compensation benefits.
- Maintain each and every record in detail
Whenever you’re dealing legally, it is best to keep every single paperwork regarding your worker’s compensation claim. Papers may include letters from the insurance agent or the employer, work limitations and completed forms. While doctors create these records for maintaining documents of your treatment, slips of work restrictions are often missed out in medical records. However, all these records are necessary for approving your worker’s comp claim and getting paid.
In a nutshell, it can be an intimidating and daunting task to navigate through the system of worker’s compensation claims. But when you get help from a competent lawyer, he can value your claim properly, mediate with the insurance company, and represent you at the court, if needed.