Will Workers Compensation Cover All Of Your Needs?
Posted on: 7 November 2017
Workers compensation is designed to help injured workers with their injury-related medical expenses while giving an income safety net as they recover. The system can help most workers with temporary injuries or conditions that are expected to clear up within a year, but long-term conditions are a bit harder to manage. It's hard to tell if your condition will become a long term problem, so use what recovery time you have left to consider a few of these planning points.
Sign Up With Other Compensation Systems
As long as you tell the truth in your documentation, the worst that any system can tell you is no. Compensation systems such as Social Security Disability and the Workers Compensation disability provisions (which vary by state) will need specific evidence to show that you are disabled and will remain disabled longer than standard workers compensation can support, but that doesn't mean you can't submit information just in case.
Being injured and on workers compensation is already half of the work out of the way. You will have a medical report that shows the facts of the initial injury, and that information is needed by any compensation system, as well as any court systems.
If you're on workers compensation and don't have any evidence of your injury, the medical professionals need to give the information over right away. Even worse, if you've been injured for more than two or three days and haven't had a follow-up medical visit, call a workers compensation attorney before speaking to anyone else. There will likely be a few other inconsistencies to figure out that won't be obvious to you without experience.
Additional Support Outside Of Compensation
Getting approved for disability is only part of the equation. You can start a new life and secure your financial future with rehabilitation, and it's best to have a rehab plan in place before you're released from workers compensation.
Many states have a vocational rehabilitation (voc rehab) program that either offers a selection of job skills for local companies or vouchers for local colleges and universities. If the college options is available in your state, shoot for something that pays well and can be completed within the time allotted for rehabilitation.
Unless you have tens of thousands of dollars in savings that won't be used for anything else, voc rehab is not the place to start a plan that won't be finished in 2 or 4 years. If you have a dream job that requires a degree, consider spending 1 year on a certification that can make significant money, then using the rest of the college time for your personal pursuits and pay the rest in some other way.
Speak to a workers compensation attorney, such as from Bishop Dorfman Kroupa & Bishop PC, to discuss other planning points for during and after a workers compensation claim.
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