Calculating Workers’ Compensation in Nebraska
If you file a workers’ compensation claim, your employer must pay your medical expenses that arise from the work injury and may also compensate you for some of the income you lost by not being able to work because of the injury.
If you get injured at work, you need only file a workers’ compensation claim, and then your employer’s workers’ comp insurance will pay for everything, but what exactly is everything, and is it really so easy to get your employer to pay it? Workers’ compensation benefits cover treatment for work-related injuries and occupational illnesses. They also cover lost income resulting from the employee’s inability to work as a result of the injury. Employers and employees often disagree about whether the employee’s symptoms are work-related and about how much the employer is obligated to pay. If you are involved in a dispute with your employer about a workers’ compensation claim, contact the Omaha workers’ compensation lawyers at Andres Law Offices, PC LLO.
Calculating Medical Benefits is Not Always Simple
Your employer’s workers’ comp insurance must pay for all the medical treatment associated with your work injury or occupational disease, but only the treatment that is medically necessary and that addresses symptoms not attributable to any other cause besides the work injury. The treatment can include doctor visits, hospitalization, surgery, physical therapy, prescription drugs, medical devices, and mental health counseling. In the case of severe injuries that require costly treatment, employers will try to pay as little as possible. If the case involves a traumatic injury that occurred in the workplace, then only the stingiest employers would try to deny that the injury is work-related. They may, however, try to wash their hands of your workers’ comp claim after you have undergone surgery and completed a course of physical therapy, arguing that your chronic pain is due to an old injury. In the case of occupational disease claims, employers have even more leeway to argue that your illness is due to a pre-existing medical condition and not to health hazards in the workplace.
Workers’ Compensation Indemnity Benefits
For injuries severe enough to require you to miss work for more than a week, you may be entitled to indemnity benefits, which compensate you for lost income. Total disability benefits pay two thirds of your wages during the times that you are completely unable to work. If you must be reassigned to a light duty job that pays less than your old job, you can get partial disability benefits. These benefits pay two thirds of the difference between your pre-injury job and your new light duty job and they last as long as you must remain on light duty.
Contact Andres Law Offices, PC LLO About Disputes Over Workers’ Compensation Benefits
An Omaha workers’ compensation lawyer can help you if you and your employer disagree about the indemnity benefits to which you are entitled or about which of your symptoms stem from a work injury or occupational disease. Contact Andres Law Offices, PC LLO in Omaha, Nebraska about your case.