Workers’ compensation is an insurance program for employees established and managed by the state. What is covered by workers' compensation in Pennsylvania? For example, will Pennsylvania workers’ compensation pay for an injured employee’s chronic pain management?
Can Pennsylvania workers’ compensation attorneys help?
Workers’ compensation coverage is mandatory for most employers under Pennsylvania law. Employers without coverage may be found liable for employees’ injuries and may even be subject to criminal charges.
Who Can Help You with Workers' Compensation in Philadelphia?
An employee injured in a work-related accident in Pennsylvania may submit a workers’ compensation claim and take those benefits while recuperating. However, injured or ill employees in Pennsylvania are not sure if they qualify for these benefits.
Others are not sure how to file a workers’ compensation claim. If you are injured in Pennsylvania in a job-related accident, let an experienced Philadelphia workers’ compensation attorney help you file a claim and acquire your necessary benefits.
Workers’ compensation protects both employers and employees. After a work-related injury, an employee receives medical care and partial compensation for lost wages. Employers pay for workers’ compensation coverage, and in return, they may not be sued by employees for personal injuries.
What is Paid by Workers' Compensation in Philadelphia?
However, determining precisely which workers’ compensation benefits an employee may qualify for can be pretty complicated. For example, in most cases, employees in Pennsylvania are entitled to receive workers’ compensation payments for necessary medical costs arising from workplace injuries.
Injured employees in Pennsylvania are also usually eligible for partial wage replacement benefits and benefits to pay for chronic pain management if necessary. The medical community defines chronic pain as pain that persists longer than six months.
How Does Chronic Pain Happen?
Chronic pain happens when the nervous system sends non-stop pain signals to the brain over months or even years. A single injury may cause pain, damage from cumulative stress or repetitive trauma, or an underlying disease such as cancer or arthritis.
The stress of constant chronic pain can lead to eating and sleeping disorders, anxiety, irritability, and depression. Without adequate pain management, the health of a regular pain victim will almost always slowly deteriorate.
Millions in the United States suffer from mild chronic pain and live with it. Others, however, are genuinely disabled by excruciating chronic pain. Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, an injured employee must report a work-related injury to their employer within 120 days. However, if you are the employee who is injured, you need to make that report at once. The employer then accepts or denies the claim.
What Types of Benefits May Be Available to Injured Workers?
What types of benefits are available to injured employees through workers’ compensation in this state? Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, benefits may include:
Partial wage replacement
Depending on an employee’s injury and how much time the employee requires to regain health and return to work, workers’ compensation benefits may include temporary disability and permanent disability.
Medical coverage
An employee may be compensated for a work-related illness or injury for necessary and reasonable medical treatment, including prescriptions, surgeries, treatments, therapy, and even mileage and parking for medical appointments.
Specific benefits
Particular injuries like amputation or facial disfigurement may qualify for clear additional benefits. In addition, vocational rehabilitation employees who cannot return to their jobs may be eligible for vocational rehabilitation payments to cover vocational retraining and job placement.
Death benefits
The surviving family members of employees who are fatally injured in work-related accidents may qualify for workers’ compensation death benefits. The benefits will hinge on the employee’s previous earnings and dependents.
Will Workers' Compensation in Philadelphia Pay for Chronic Pain Management?
To be compensated for chronic pain management, an employee’s illness or injury must arise directly from a work-related accident or hazard. That’s one reason why you must seek medical attention immediately when a job-related injury happens.
If you need to obtain workers’ compensation payments for the cost of chronic pain management, you will need to demonstrate that your pain arises from a job-related injury or illness such as:
- a repetitive stress injury
- a back injury
- a musculoskeletal injury
- a burn injury
- a traumatic brain injury
- exposure to toxic chemicals
Treatment for chronic pain can be complicated. Eligible injured employees may be compensated for pain management costs arising from work-related injuries, including over-the-counter and prescription medicines, surgeries, pain management therapy, and in some cases, counseling.
Could Your Workers Compensation Benefits Be Denied?
If you are injured or made ill at work, compile as much documentation as possible regarding your injury or illness. Some injured employees may feel that the medical examinations required for workers’ compensation benefits are inadequate or biased against them.
Some workers’ compensation insurance companies have been known to use any legal loophole to deny a workers’ compensation claim. This is especially true when an injury is not visible – like many of the damages that result in chronic pain – an injured employee will need reliable legal help.
- exposure to toxic chemicals
- a burn injury
- a back injury
- a traumatic brain injury
- a musculoskeletal injury
- a repetitive stress injury
Let an accomplished Pennsylvania workers’ compensation attorney help you submit your injury claim. If necessary, your workers’ compensation attorney can even arrange a visit to an independent doctor for a second opinion.
When Should You Speak to a Workers' Compensation Law Firm?
Accepting or denying a workers’ compensation claim can hinge on several technicalities. If you are injured at work in Pennsylvania, do not make the mistake of failing to have all of your questions about workers’ compensation answered and all of your concerns addressed.
Whether you are injured at work abruptly in an accident or over time with a repetitive stress injury, report the damage to your employer, be examined by a physician, and meet with an experienced workers’ compensation attorney as quickly as you can.
Nothing is more important than your health or your future. If you are injured at your place of work in Pennsylvania, compensation is your right. A reasonable attorney’s help is also your right. If you are injured at work, get that help at once.
Give us a call at 215-939-4895 for a free consultation.
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