WORKERS’ COMP PROVIDES BENEFITS – EVEN IF YOU DON’T MISS TIME FROM WORK

Workers often think about filing for workers’ compensation if they have an injury or illness that puts them out of work.  However, the law provides benefits – sometimes including money benefits – even for injuries that do not involve time out of work. 

Workers’ compensation provides medical coverage for any work-related injury or illness from the moment it happens.  All medical bills related to the case are payable by the employer or its insurance company – no co-pays, no deductibles, no out-of-pocket expense for the worker.  The injured worker is even entitled to be reimbursed for travel to and from medical appointments, over-the-counter medications, bandages, crutches, etc.

If the injury results in any permanent loss of use of a limb – arm, leg, hand, foot, finger, toe, vision loss or hearing loss – the law provides a money award for that injury.  The amount of the benefits depends on several factors – what limb was involved, the extent of the loss of use, how much the worker was earning before the accident and the date of the accident, among others.  In fact, in these cases any benefits paid for time out of work are deducted from the award, so in most situations the award is higher if there is no lost time than if there was.