North Carolina Workers' Compensation Law Blog

We round up our series of tips for healthcare professionals treating injured workers with some information about chiropractic care and mileage reimbursement.

• Injured workers who must travel 20 miles or more roundtrip for medical care are entitled to collect $0.55 per mile. Special consideration also is given to employees who are totally disabled.
• Chiropractic treatment is allowed for workers’ compensation patients, if the employer or the employer’s insurance company grants permission. As many as 20 visits are allowed, if medically necessary. If additional visits are needed, the chiropractor should request this authorization from the Industrial Commission.

If youv'e missed any of the previous tips, find them here.

Posted By Dan Deuterman In Best Practices | Permalink | 0 Comments | | Share Link

Many injured workers believe that they don’t have the right to choose their own doctor and that they must see a physician assigned by the N.C. Industrial Commission or their employer’s workers’ comp insurance company.

But here's the truth:

• Patients have the right to ask the Industrial Commission for permission to see a doctor of their choosing. However, if an injured person is treated by a physician without first getting permission, his or her workers’ comp benefits might be in jeopardy. If a patient comes to you under these circumstances, advise them that an attorney can help ensure that benefits are protected.

For more tips on how to help injured people navigate the complex workers' compensation system in North Carolina, click here. Our attorneys and paralegals at the Deuterman Law Group also are available to answer questions and provide counsel to injured workers.

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Today's tip for healthcare professionals treating injured workers deals with the problems that can arise when an injured person returns to work too soon.

In the haste to get back to work and to a steady paycheck, people can cause irreversible physical damage, and they may also jeopardize their ability to collect on a workers' compensation claim.

• Some injured workers will want to return to work before they are medically able to do so. While injured workers are justified in their fear of reprisal for missing work because of an injury, strongly discourage them from returning to a job for which they are physically unprepared. Candidly explain the risk of re-injury. And while it’s true that some people are fired for filing a workers’ compensation claim – even though the law forbids such retaliation – being fired is preferable to derailing recovery or creating a worse medical problem by returning to work too soon. Let your patients know that there is legal recourse if they are fired. Patients can file a wrongful termination claim themselves with the Industrial Commission, but many will find it helpful to have an attorney advocate on their behalf.

You can find my entire series of tips here, and stay tuned throughout the week for more advice on helping injured workers under your medical care.

Posted By Dan Deuterman In Best Practices | Permalink | 0 Comments | | Share Link

I hope you're finding my series of tips about worker's compensation and benefits available to injured and disabled workers law helpful.

I've been sharing information about things that doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers can do to help injured patients as they navigate the complicated workers' comp system in North Carolina. There are quite a few unique benefits available to injured workers, but without a doctor's recommendation patients may not be able to receive these benefits.

My aim is to arm health care professionals with the information they need so they can attend to the unique needs of injured workers while providing them with medical treatment.

Did you know, for instance, that:

• Injured workers may be entitled to additional benefits beyond compensation for lost wages and traditional medical care. The standard in North Carolina is whether or not the recommended treatment is reasonably likely to effect a cure, give relief from symptoms (including pain relief) or lessen the period of disability. Under this standard, in cases of catastrophic injury, North Carolina’s workers’ compensation law allows for things like home and vehicle modifications, medical devices in the home such as hospital beds, in-home attendant care, motorized wheelchairs, etc. So long as these devices/modifications meet the standard recited above and are prescribed by a treating physician, they should be covered by the Workers’ Compensation insurance company.

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Today's is the third installment of my series of tips for healthcare professionals who are treating injured or disabled workers.

Knowing more about how workers' compensation laws are structured in North Carolina will help healthcare professionals attend to the other needs of injured workers during the course of medical treatment.

You can find other entries in this series here:

Here's today's tip:

• Encourage you patient to keep a calendar or journal to document important facts relating to the work injury and ongoing treatment. In their journals, patients should record details of how the injury occurred, who witnessed it and how and when it was reported. Additionally, injured workers should make note of any medical appointments in their journals, recording any medical procedures that were conducted and instructions they received from healthcare workers. Finally, patients should write about any symptoms or additional medical problems they’re experiencing and any harassment they encounter from employers, coworkers or the insurance company regarding the work injury. Workers’ personal journals have proven to be invaluable in presenting a workers’ comp claim to the N.C. Industrial Commission.

Posted By Dan Deuterman In Best Practices | Permalink | 0 Comments | | Share Link

I'm continuing today with my series of tips for healthcare professionals who are treating injured or disabled workers.

Knowing more about how workers' compensation laws are structured in North Carolina will help healthcare professionals attend to the other needs of injured workers during the course of medical treatment.

You can find other entries in this series here:

Now for today's tip:

• Keep detailed records of the patient’s treatment and any conversations you have about the injuries. Detailed medical records, which accurately reflect the patient’s symptoms, treatment and the progression of their recovery, are crucial in workers’ compensation claims. Many cases end up in litigation simply because medical records lack details or are ambiguous.

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At some point in their medical practice, most healthcare workers will treat a patient who was injured on the job.

But many doctors, physicians’ assistants and nurses find that while they can help these patients with their medical problems and physical recovery, treating someone with a work injury presents a unique set of challenges – not all of them medical. 

Indeed, injured workers and their families must deal with a host of issues as they try to heal and rebuild their lives after being hurt on the job. There are emotional and financial burdens, and a seemingly endless amount of bureaucratic red tape to navigate when filing a workers’ compensation claim.

Additionally, injured workers face tremendous external pressure from family members, coworkers, employers and insurance companies to return to work so they can start earning a paycheck again. It’s also not unusual for injured workers to pressure themselves to return to work before they’re physically ready because they feel obligated to do so or feel “less than” because they’re out of work and collecting unemployment benefits. 

When we started the Deuterman Law Group six years ago, one of our founding principles was that we would treat clients as people, not as cases, and that we would attend to the whole person. It’s our job to ensure not only that our clients receive the maximum workers’ compensation and medical benefits available to them, but also to assist them as they adjust to a new “normal” following an injury.

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OSHA, responsible for enforcing worker safety regulations, will be doing more to ensure that companies are following those laws and accurately reporting workplace accidents and injuries.

The agency will be focusing on specific industries, where certain injuries are common, and also will be examining whether some companies have been lax in reporting injuries, according to an article in the DemocratandChronicle.com

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, created to enforce the large and growing number of worker safety laws and regulations, last week issued its "site-specific target" plan for the year, a warning, in effect, that the agency will be tougher on injury rates in specialized industries.

The plan mentioned nursing homes, where workers often suffer back and limb injuries in caring for patients, as an industry facing special attention.

But there is another program in the bureaucratic works — the National Emphasis Program — that is potentially more significant for local businesses that to this point either have escaped OSHA attention or are not in the usual range of targeted industries.

OSHA plans to examine companies that report low injury rates or few lost days due to injury with the idea that many companies have been underreporting or minimizing the need for thorough record-keeping.

The agency estimates that as many as 20 percent of all businesses fail to adequately report workplace-related injuries and illnesses. Other studies put the number as high as 68 percent.

Posted By Joel Davis In Resources for Injured Workers | Permalink | 0 Comments | | Share Link

New York Newsday is asking regular folks to weigh in on health care reform.

As you can imagine, many people's opinions are a result of their own experience with the health care system, insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.

55-year-old Deborah Russell, who lives on Social Security and relies on Medicaid to pay her medical bills, favors reform.

Russell says too many hardworking people she knows - including a 49-year-old mechanic who rents a room in the same two-story house where she lives - have no insurance. "When he got sick two weeks ago, I gave him Tamiflu and some aspirin, but he didn't go to the doctor," she said of her neighbor. Any health care reform has to ensure some low-cost option for young and middle-aged adults who may need health care, Russell said.

You can read her complete story here.

Posted By Benjamin Burnside In Social Security Disability | Permalink | 0 Comments | | Share Link

Men face a disproportionate risk of dying or being injured on the job, according to statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The reason is simple: men are more likely to work in dangerous injuries such as construction (90 percent male) and manufacturing (70 percent male), where the bulk of workplace accidents and deaths occur. Female-dominated industries such as health care and education have fewer incidents of deaths and injuries.

Approximately 7% of fatalities in 2008 were women, leaving men accounting for a whopping 93% of all workplace fatalities. Men were over 13 times more likely to die while on the job compared with women according to the report issued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Writer Katie Kelley has some thoughts on what these statistics mean for men and women in the workplace when it comes to compensation.

Posted By Dan Deuterman In WorkPlace Deaths | Permalink | 0 Comments | | Share Link