What To Know About Workers' Compensation And Partial Disabilities
ShareThe wide range of injuries that can occur in a workplace are all covered by workers' comp, as long as it was work-related. There are too many different levels of injuries to mention, and everyone has their own unique way of healing, or not healing, from a given incident. When an injury affects certain parts of your body in a more permanent way, you may be looking at benefits as particular as the injury itself. Read on to find out more about dealing with partial permanent injuries related to your job.
Is the injury temporary or permanent?
With some injuries, only time will tell. A hurt back, for example, may take its own time to heal, and it could take several months of rest and perhaps even surgery to help that healing along. When you are still unable to return to your job, even after everything possible has been done to alleviate your pain and discomfort, you may be in a permanent injury situation.
Other injuries let you know right away that things will never be the same. Burns, amputations, and other serious injuries that fall into the catastrophic category will result in the knowledge that you have a permanent injury, and you will know this fairly soon after the accident.
Maximum medical improvement
In both of the above situations, your healing may be at what the workers' comp insurance carrier calls maximum medical improvement. This means that your injury is not expected to improve enough for you to return to your job and that you have a permanent injury. Usually, this ruling comes at the beginning for more catastrophic injuries and after some time has passed for other types of injuries that just won't heal.
Partial disabilities
If your injury involves less than 100% of your body, you may be ruled to have a partial permanent disability. This means that you have an injury that compromises a certain percentage of your ability to do your job. You might be at anywhere from 10% to 95% disabled when it comes to partial disability injuries. The work you are still able to do is the key figure.
You are entitled to be paid for the work that you can no longer do, even if you are able to do some types of work. You may not be able to be paid as much as you would for a 100% disability, but you may still get something.
You also may be entitled to work training through your state's rehabilitation program that could put you in a different job or working part-time or light duty. When it comes to this type of disability, it can get complicated.
Anytime you are dealt an injury, you need to have a workers compensation attorney negotiate for the best possible payment and benefits. Speak to an attorney today to get what you deserve.