Too Many Employees are Out of Work Too Long

 

Return to work programs focus on bringing employees back to work as soon as they are medically able. Employees who are out of work receive more medical treatment, so reducing lost time will reduce the cost of both lost wage payments and medical costs.
One of the biggest causes of high workers comp costs is a disproportionate length of disability. If an employee is injured January 1, and healed January 15, they should be back to work January 15 – not June 15 or July 15. You must bring the time out of work back down so that your employee’s recovery time is proportionate to the length of time of the actual medical disability.
Top 12 Steps to Bring Employees Back to Work Sooner
1. Have a Transitional Duty Policy that requires participation when an employee is injured.
2. Communicate your program to the workforce in a positive way so it becomes part of your corporate culture.
3. Show management the cost savings of an effective transitional duty program with our Transitional Duty Calculator (below).
4. Establish a goal to bring 90% or more of injured employees who would lose time from work back to work within 1-4 days after in the injury.
5. Use Injury Duration Guidelines to estimate appropriate timeframes for each injury.
6. Develop a Transitional Duty Job Bank for employees who cannot return to their original job immediately after an injury. Put at least 10 assignments on this list. Ask supervisors and employees for suggestions. Ask them to create a “wish list” of things they would like to have done but have not had time to do. Include these items on the transitional duty task bank. Send this transitional duty job bank to your TPA.
7. Customize transitional duty tasks (and job schedules) so they can be restructured easily to accommodate increased ability as the injured worker recuperates.
8. Hold weekly meetings at your workplace with all employees who are out of work or on transitional duty to discuss progress and obstacles to return to work. Provide transportation to these meetings if an employee is unable to drive. Use Weekly Meeting Guidelines to structure this meeting.
9. Send all employees who are currently out of work a letter requesting their medical restrictions. Include a Work Ability Form with the letter and provide date and time of their next weekly meeting.
10. Work with a vendor that provides off-site employment temporarily for employees who are unable to travel or for any other reason cannot come back to a transitional duty position in your facility.
11. In states where it is permissible, have your medical director contact treating doctors to discuss medical restrictions if an employee’s treating doctor says they are unable to perform any work. The employee’s doctor may not understand you have a transitional duty program and will customize jobs to meet almost any temporary restrictions.
12. Make sure to coordinate your Transitional Duty Policy with all other state and federal leave and absence regulations such as ADA, FMLA, COBRA and ERISA.

In any Virginia Workers Compensation case or any workers compensation case, the injured worker will go through a deposition. There are a lot of things that you should and shouldn’t due during a deposition. A good amount of injured workers do not know what the main purpose of a deposition is so they go into the deposition thinking that it is just a regular conversation. Injured workers need to understand that depositions are written statements that are going to be used against you in your case.
For tips on depositions and Virginia Workers Compensation, go to our web site under videos. http://www.injuredworkerslawfirm.com
Michele Lewane

“Can they do this?”  “What should I do?”  “This is ridiculous!”

These are a lot of the questions and comments I hear from injured workers calling my office about the possibility of a private investigator following them around.  I tell everyone just assume you ARE being followed and behave accordingly.  Sadly, workers’ compensation insurance companies are in the business of saving money; and if paying an investigator to monitor your activities might save them from paying out the full benefits owed to you for a work injury, that is what they will do!  And yes, in the state of Virginia, they are allowed to.

Your doctor’s restrictions for work still apply when you clock out for the day; so no lifting over 5lbs means no lifting over 5lbs, period!  If you are doing anything that might violate the orders your doctor has laid out for you, even something as simple as carrying in the groceries, you need to STOP IMMEDIATELY!

I know this can make simple things all the more complicated by having to ask for help with otherwise day-to-day activities, but being denied benefits can devastate people’s lives – I see it happen all too often and I do not want to see this happen to you.  Remember, protect yourself:

“Assume you ARE being followed and behave accordingly!”

 

If you have any questions or concerns regarding a work injury, contact my IWLF team for friendly helpful assistance.

 

“At Injured Workers’ Law Firm we see every day the hardships people face when they have had the misfortune of suffering an injury on the job.  We know the system is imperfect and we spend countless hours educating the public to help protect them from the technicalities and pitfalls of a system that so many people fall victim to.  Our team of professionals is dedicated to fighting the insurance companies to assist claimants in getting the care they need and the compensation they are entitled too.  We are advocates for injured workers across Virginia.”

 

Why you should NEVER wait to report an injury / Intervening injuries

 

A lot of people wait to report injuries for a whole host of reasons:

*not wanting to appear weak

*thinking that the injury is “not that bad” or that it will heal on its own

*fear of retaliation from their employers/loss of their job

*there is no one around to fill out an injury report

I can understand why someone might want to wait to report an injury.  BUT what many people don’t realize, until it is too late, is that the Insurance Company is not going to just take your word on anything.  If you injure your neck at work and fail to report the injury and are then in a car accident on your way to the doctor’s office (even a minor fender bender), there is no documentation of your work injury and the insurance company may try to deny your entire claim.  I also hear about people who “tweak” their arm or shoulder at work and then, while doing something non-work related (like playing basketball or doing chores around the yard) realize they truly are injured – the problem is – did the injury come from work OR the non-work related activity?  If there is no documentation of the work injury it will be very hard to argue that your injury came from work and not somewhere else.

 

ALWAYS report your injury as soon as you are able!

 

Injured Workers Law Firm  recommends this event put on by the premier custody and divorce law firm in Virginia.

Custody Bootcamp for Moms will be held Saturday July 28, 2012 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Email kwilcox@hoflaw.com for registration information and cost. The Bootcamp is designed to assist Moms who are confronting a custody or visitation dispute and want to know how to present their case in court.

State Unemployment Benefits. If you can’t work at
all, then you cannot receive unemployment benefits.
However, if your workers’ compensation claim has
been denied and you have light duty restrictions, you
may be able to get unemployment benefits. If you
have been laid off or your employer is not going to
accommodate your light duty restrictions, then you
may file for unemployment. However, if your claim is
contested and you eventually do win or receive workers’
compensation benefits down the road for the same
period for which you received unemployment benefits,
you are required to pay the unemployment benefits

Many people who are injured at work are faced with the difficult task of paying their bills on a lower income, or sometimes no income at all.  Time off of work, termination from work and the high cost of medical care are all factors that can lead an injured worker and his/her family to the difficult decision to file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.  If you have been injured on the job and are now considering filing for Bankruptcy protection from you creditors, you may want to talk to an attorney first so that you can develop a strategy to fit your unique situation; for example:  If you have a workers’ compensation claim and are considering filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, you may want to file your Bankruptcy petition before you settle your workers’ compensation claim.  By filing for the Chapter 7 Bankruptcy protection before you settle your workers’ compensation claim, you are protected by the Bankruptcy Court under the Automatic Stay so that the funds you receive from your settlement are protected and unsecured creditors may not collect from these moneys.

 

The first time I called Ms Lewane and explained my injury circumstances, she scheduled an appointment with me. At this appointment, Ms. Lewane shared many answers to my questions regarding what to expect from my workers compensation claim. She explained what , by law, I am entitled to receive. She gave me a hand book with all of this information. She also explained that I can be compensated for my travel expenses. My injury occurred 1-9-2011, and throughout my treatment, she was always available to answer questions regarding some of the Insurance companies practices and how I should word my questions to them and to my case manager. I found that emailing her was the most efficient use of her time.

After seeing a specialist for my injury and receiving what amounts to a “stop-gap” surgical procedure which gave me no real relief from pain, she informed me that I should have been given the names of three specialists from which I could chose. The first specialist was not trained in the latest area of treatment for my specific need. She encouraged me to request a new specialist, trained in this newer treatment, and after much time going back and forth with the caseworker, I was allowed to see a new Dr. that does specialize in the area of my injury need. As of this writing, I have had many email conversations and phone calls regarding my progress and advice on how and what to share with my workers comp.case manager and the nurse assigned to my case. I cannot express how this “Guiding Light” has brought me to this day. I am to have a cutting edge surgical procedure on 4-24-2012, by a most competently trained surgeon.

I may have given up in despair if it had not been for the encouragement and guiding advice of Ms. Lewane. Even though I have not formally “Hired” Ms. Lewane, she has always made me feel that she was there to help me. I can only say, “thank you Michele, for helping me through the past year. If it were not for you and your staff,my story would have a different ending”!!

Carole S. Sutton

Amelia County Court House , Virginia

Vocational rehabilitation. Once the doctor states
that you may return to some form of light duty
work, the insurance company may begin vocational
rehabilitation. There are two goals of vocational
rehabilitation. The first goal is to restore the employee
to some form of employment and the second goal is to
relieve the employer’s burden of future compensation.
The goal is not to find the employee a meaningful job,
a convenient job, or a job that he would want. It is not
an opportunity to go to college or learn a new trade.
It is solely to save the insurance company money. To
me, vocational rehabilitation is not a benefit to the
employee but rather a benefit to the insurance company.
It is usually better for employees to find their own
employment. The Virginia Workers’ Compensation
Commission’s vocational guidelines are in the
appendix. You can go to my website and download the
form at http://www.injuredworkerslawfirm.com. If you think
the vocational rehabilitation specialist is violating the
rules, give him or her a copy