Can I Lose or Forfeit My WC Benefits?
If you unnecessarily delay reporting your work injury to your employer or seeking medical attention, you can jeopardize your workers’ compensation claim. Your employer may come to doubt that your symptoms are related to the work accident.
Filing a workers’ compensation claim, getting your treatment paid for, and collecting disability payments, if applicable, is supposed to be a straightforward process. It is not like a personal injury lawsuit, or even a car accident claim, where you have to figure out which percent of the fault belongs to whom. Unfortunately, though, workers’ compensation insurance is a business, and the insurance companies that pay for your treatment are trying to do so at the lowest possible cost to themselves. If there is any indication that any aspect of your injury or illness is not related to a work accident or occupational hazards, they will capitalize on this. Therefore, innocent mistakes on your part could cause you to lose some or all of your workers’ compensation benefits. The best way to avoid this problem is to work with the Omaha workers’ compensation lawyers at Andres Law Offices, PC LLO.
The First Days After the Accident are the Most Important
One of the biggest mistakes you can make in a workers’ compensation case is to wait too long before notifying your employer of the injury. Unlike most other states, Nebraska does not have a strict deadline for notifying your employer of an injury for which you will be seeking treatment through workers’ compensation, but the sooner you notify your employer, the better. This way, your employer does not have room to suspect that you got injured when you were not at work and are now trying to get workers’ compensation to pay for your treatment.
Likewise, even though your instinct might be to tough it out, you should get your injuries examined by a doctor immediately after the work accident. This way, it is not your word against your employer’s in regards to how and when you got hurt. Likewise, your medical records will show a doctor’s professional opinion about to what extent your symptoms are due to the work accident and to what extent, if any, they are due to pre-existing conditions.
Do Not Give Your Employer Reason to Doubt That You are Telling the Truth
If you have applied for temporary total disability or temporary partial disability benefits, do not give your employer reason to believe that you do not really need them. Posting images of yourself on social media engaging in leisure activities can only make your employer suspect that you are being dishonest about your injuries and your need for benefits, even if the pictures were taken before the work accident.
Contact Andres Law Offices, PC LLO About Avoiding Mistakes With Your Workers’ Compensation Claim
An Omaha workers’ compensation lawyer can help you avoid inadvertently causing your employer to doubt that you have filed your workers’ compensation claim in good faith. Contact Andres Law Offices, PC LLO in Omaha, Nebraska about your case.