thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jan 13, 2022 10:00:37 GMT -5
I got injured while at work - probably because I did something wrong or am insanely weak. I do have insurance and I may have started the injury on my personal time and space an just pushed it over the edge at work.
Is workman's comp worth pursuing? Is it a pain and I will spend a ton of time proving my sad, nearly unbelievable story?
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daisylu
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Post by daisylu on Jan 13, 2022 11:09:48 GMT -5
For me, it would depend on how bad the injury is. Would it require missing work for doctor visits, physical therapy, etc? If so, yes. If not, I would not pursue workers comp. Also, if the injury happened at work did you tell ANYONE? If so, workers comp is a definite.
IME, there is not much proving that it happened at work but it is a pain and though employers say it is not held against you most often it is - and it sometimes makes it likely that they will look for other reasons to get rid of you down the road. That did not happen to me, but I have seen it with other people.
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stillmovingforward
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Post by stillmovingforward on Jan 13, 2022 11:46:17 GMT -5
I would say it is. Because I've had my insurance company come back on a few claims and state that this happened at work and should be covered by L&I, so they were not paying anything. It's a double edge sword. So be aware that you may have to justify using private insurance for the injury.
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Rukh O'Rorke
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Post by Rukh O'Rorke on Jan 13, 2022 12:05:56 GMT -5
probably best to go through workers comp because with an injury, sometimes you don't know where it will end in terms of healing.
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Rukh O'Rorke
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Post by Rukh O'Rorke on Jan 13, 2022 12:06:16 GMT -5
And hope you are back to 100% asap!!
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Apple
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Post by Apple on Jan 18, 2022 7:48:35 GMT -5
Did you file? I would file.
I slipped on the ice last February. No big deal, usually... I did file an injury report, but did not see a doctor (would have had to call someone in to cover my shift). The next day it felt like my hip was on fire, so went to the doctor.
Now it's nearly a year later, and my physical therapist has done all she can. I also finally get to see an orthopedic (hip) specialist soon, who should have more experience than the local guy.
I'm not on light duty (my choice), but could go back on it at any time with just a call to the occupational health doctor. Depending on what the specialist finds, I may require surgery with a decent amount of time off work (will take LWOP that is reimbursed by worker's comp at about 2/3 of my wage, and use a day of sick time each pay period to cover my medical insurance, etc. Should know more soon, but some info so far has been I could be out for 8 weeks, or more, considering I have a physical job. Will hopefully find out more soon.)
It's been a mixed bag-- seems like the process is a lot slower having to go through all the approvals worker's comp requires. This has been frustrating. However, I've not had to pay a dime. I've had x-rays, an MRI, months of physical therapy, with who knows what's going to happen in the near, or far, future. I'm definitely glad it's not coming out of my pocket.
On the other hand, I've still had smaller things happen since then that I didn't report, but think a lot harder about it now.
As far as proof, I just had to state, many, many times, when/where the injury occurred, how I slipped, landed, how it felt/feels, etc.
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engineerdoe
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Post by engineerdoe on Jan 18, 2022 17:41:52 GMT -5
The more I hear other people's stories about dealing with L&I (worker's comp) the more I realize I was pretty lucky with my work injury. I guess having to be lifted off the roof in a basket hanging off the firetruck ladder kinda solidifies the extent of my injury so there was no questioning me on it. Everything went pretty well for me and the only thing that didn't was entirely Walgreen's fault and not L&I. (L&I approved my narcotic presciption for after surgery but Walgreen's claimed they didn't see this approval but would let me run it with my normal medical insurance copay.) My office was also very cool about letting me work remotely at the time (2017) and I mainly work at my desk so once I was more mobile I could go into the office, so I didn't need to use the LWOP. Also because of my issues with blood clots, L&I even paid for my warfarin and constant INR checks.
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laterbloomer
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Post by laterbloomer on Jan 18, 2022 19:58:18 GMT -5
Like someone else said, at the very least make a report. Things have a way of coming back to haunt you years later and you will need that documentation. And don't say there was some kind of original injury on private time unless there irrefutably was. If things escalate your employer could grab onto that. Working with Workman's Comp has the added benefit of them being an intermediary with your employer as well.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2022 22:13:01 GMT -5
About 15 years ago, I opened a door on the machine I was working on, and the whole door just fell off, on my head. Even though it’s big, the door is hard plastic in a metal frame, so not as heavy as another material would’ve been.
I filed an accident report, mostly because the door just falling off (WHERE does that happen?!) on my head pissed me off more than it hurt me.
The accident report asked the same questions in a million different ways that were intended to make me somehow be responsible for the accident. But there was no getting around the fact that unbeknownst to me, the top hinge had been popping out every once in a while. Nobody knew what happened to the bottom hinge. I don’t think it’s practical for me to inspect the hinges on every door I open during my workday, before I open it. Nor would it have occurred to me to do so, on any door, in any workplace.
When other shifts would call maintenance because the bolt in the top hinge fly out, maintenance would just come find the bolt and put it back in, never actually fixing the problem. Those calls were on record. The door had not ever fallen completely off before it fell on me because, all the other times, the bottom bolt, that nobody knows what happened to, held it on.
So, when my manager came almost running back there after he got the call, about 4 maintenance guys, their supervisor, and his boss were with him. The maintenance folks knew that if I was seriously hurt, they were in big trouble.
There was clearly no reasonable way to make me be responsible for the accident, so I got irritated with answering the same question over and over, just worded differently, in an attempt to try to make it my fault.
And that was with an accident report that was made immediately and due to negligence on our maintenance department’s behalf, which was documented because there are logs of our call to them and the problem we called about.
But that’s just my employer. They are weird and extra. And a lot of what happens after filing a report and how difficult it is to get necessary workman’s comp claims get approved, depends on which manager is in charge of handling it. You can get anything from discipline for having an accident in the first place, and/or a fight to get a legit workman’s comp claim approved, to a workman’s comp claim approved with no hassles besides all the paperwork.
The way my job is, I pick my battles. I have several injuries that are almost certainly due to my job. And since they all happened over time, even if the argument is made that any one of them was not directly due to my job, the counter argument is that they are exacerbated by my job, which can also qualify for workman’s comp.
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Happy prose
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Post by Happy prose on Jan 19, 2022 5:53:24 GMT -5
I have never filed, but have seen others- keep in mind, when on WC, you have to use their doctors. If you had an injury that required surgery later, wouldn't you want to pick your own? I'd go home and fall down.
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daisylu
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Post by daisylu on Jan 19, 2022 7:48:39 GMT -5
I have never filed, but have seen others- keep in mind, when on WC, you have to use their doctors. If you had an injury that required surgery later, wouldn't you want to pick your own? I'd go home and fall down. I personally know 3 woman who were hurt on the job in the last years. Everything on camera and 100% company liability (one had a pallet fall off a passing vehicle and bang her head into a barrier, I saw the video - she is lucky to have survived). All 3 clearly need surgery, but the doc has strung it out so long that I fear that they will never be 100%. When the first was injured (a shoulder injury a little over 2 years ago) she was hardly able to ever see the worker's comp doctor. Employer continued to put her in the same situation that caused her injury, trying to get her to quit IMO. I told her that if it was me, I would also see my own doctor and a lawyer - IME most employers now see you as a liability and have zero care if you get well or not. She did finally get a lawyer and sued. They made her life hell while the case was ongoing until she finally quit last summer. She did get a settlement. You are the only person who will do what needs to be done to fix yourself. Employers do not give a sh*t.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jan 19, 2022 14:56:58 GMT -5
I have only ever needed to use WC once, in a lab accident when I sliced the hell out of my hand. For me, all I needed was someone to stitch my skin back together (3 places, 30+ stitches). It being a work accident was never an issue and there were no OOP costs for me. That being said, I have heard of people having issues with WC doctors, and you lose your choice as to who you see and how you are treated. Your treatment may be strung out (like trying to fix a problem with PT) to avoid paying much higher surgical costs, especially if that is the better treatment. If I was in this case, I would try to have my insurance pay from doctors I researched and chose for it and have it subrogated through WC, if possible. As daisylu says, you are the one who has to make sure that you get the best treatment available. This an be hard enough under normal circumstances, but having to only deal with WC may make it much harder….and you still pay.
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