When you're injured on the job, worker's compensation insurance is supposed to cover the cost of your medical treatment and provide you with a bit of income to get you through until you can get back to work again. Unfortunately, employers aren't always willing to pay out those claims – they begin looking for ways to discredit you and have the claim closed. Here, you'll find a short list of the things the employer may consider to be red flags and begin looking for any signs of fraud in your case.
Circumstances of the Accident
This will be the first thing that an employer looks into. If the incident in question is questionable, they will begin digging. The key to proving that your account of the incident is accurate, you will need witnesses, video or other supporting evidence that the incident occurred just as you've reported.
Believe it or not, employers will look at injuries that are reported early on the first day of the workweek or towards the end of the day on the last day of the workweek suspiciously. This is because a lot of people are injured outside of the workplace and then, file a compensation claim stating that their injury was sustained on the job.
Medical Evaluations
When you file a workers compensation claim, you will be required to go to mandated medical evaluations. The doctor will then share the information that you provide with the insurance company that carries the workers compensation policy. If your story changes in the least bit, that insurance company may use your own words against you to discredit you and deny your claim.
Make sure that you're going to all of your medical appointments. Any treatment, any exam, any prescription must be followed to the letter to protect your benefits. If it's obvious that you're not following the doctor's instructions, the insurance company can work to prove that you're not complying with the medical treatment plan and begin the process of denying your claim – possibly even come after you to recover any payments already issued.
If your workers compensation payments are in jeopardy, or you want to protect yourself from these insurance companies and employers that fight to prevent the protection of workers, don't hesitate to contact your local workers compensation defense firm, like Dawson & Associates, LLC , for assistance. They will hear you out and come up with the best plan of action to take to protect your benefits.
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11 December 2018
When I started my first small business, I had no idea how much I really didn’t know. I was fully prepared to deal with customers, sell product and even handle complaints and returns. What I wasn’t aware of was that there is so much more to it. I was lacking the legal expertise to protect the company and myself. I wanted others to benefit from my experience, mistakes and lessons learned, so I started this blog. From employment law to the legal business contracts you’ll have to sign when you form partnerships, business law is complex. I hope that the information here will help you to be better prepared when you start your business so that you’ll know when you need to call an attorney and when you can handle things yourself.
