You’ve worked for years, perhaps giving your employer the best years of your life. Whether you’ve been with a company for two weeks or twenty years, you deserve protection from job site injuries. Although certain industries, including construction and delivery driving, have higher risks for work-related injuries, anyone can sustain a work injury. Office workers, teachers and even sales clerks in a retail setting could end up severely injured in the course of doing their jobs.
Harm ranges from severe injuries related to a car accident, machinery malfunction or fall to moderate injuries due to repetitive stress that make working difficult, painful or impossible. Regardless of the nature of your injury, you probably have the right to workers’ compensation if it is directly related to your work or sustained while you were at work.
You need to advise your employer and file a claim quickly
As soon as you know you are hurt, you need to advise your manager, supervisor or human resources contact about the accident or injury. If there are medical facilities at your work, you may need to submit to an internal evaluation. From there, you may seek external medical treatment and file a workers’ compensation claim.
Unfortunately for some workers, claims can end up denied for a variety of reasons. A denial of your workers’ compensation claim could leave you unable to work and without an ability to pay for the medical care you need. Whether it was a mistake in your paperwork or your employer claiming there was no on-site accident, you have the right to appeal a denial of your coverage.
Denials happen for a range of reasons
Sometimes, employers deny coverage for workers’ compensation because an incident report didn’t get filed in a timely manner. The longer you wait to report the accident or injury, the more likely your claim will get denied. It is also possible that your doctor is not in the network for your employer’s workers’ compensation coverage. You should check with your employer to determine what doctors you can see. It’s even possible for your employer to claim your injury didn’t happen at work or was the result of your negligence. Whatever the reason, you have a right to appeal.
Appealing the denial of your claim requires paperwork and documentation. You should take every step possible to ensure that forms are properly executed and submitted before any critical deadlines. You may also need to gather addition evidence, such as statements from co-workers who witnessed your injury or medical records substantiating the nature and severity of your injuries. The sooner you take action to appeal the denial of the claim, the better prepared you will be for the appeals process.