By: Michael J. McConnell – Westchester County workers’ compensation lawyer serving Yonkers, White Plains, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, NYC, Rockland, and Long Island.
If you got hurt at work in White Plains or anywhere else in New York, then seeking medical treatment for your injury is critical. It is recommended that you seek immediate medical treatment after an accident, especially if it is an emergency. In the days, weeks, months and sometimes years that follow it is just as essential for you to continue to seek medical treatment from a workers’ compensation perspective.
In today’s post, I will give 5 reasons why seeking immediate medical treatment and continuing to follow up with your doctor regularly is so important on your workers’ compensation case if you have been injured at work in White Plains or elsewhere in New York.
1. Medical Reports Prove Causal Relationship
To have a valid New York workers’ compensation claim, a key requirement is that the injury is “causally related” to your employment duties. A simpler way of saying this is that the injury is connected or caused by something work-related.
It is not enough in New York just to say, “I had an accident at work and now my knee hurts.” Instead, you need a medical report saying something to that effect if you want to get compensated for your injury.
The sooner you get that medical report the better. For example, if you went to the emergency room after the accident, then they should have asked you how you got hurt. The doctor who examined you there should then put something in the medical report saying that whatever injuries you have were caused by that work-related accident.
2. Medical Reports Corroborate the Accident and Injury
When we talk about “evidence” of an accident, one of the best types besides maybe video of the accident or an eyewitness is a contemporaneous medical report – ideally from the day of the accident or shortly thereafter.
If your employer or the insurance company handling your case is trying to argue that the accident didn’t occur, it can be really helpful to have a medical report from as close to the accident as possible describing the accident.
That way, if the insurance company or your employer tries to say that you are just “making this accident up after the fact” or some nonsense like that, you can use the medical report to help prove your case.
The medical report could then be key proof that you were telling a doctor exactly how the accident occurred right away. It can help persuade the workers’ compensation judge hearing your case that you were crystal clear about how the accident happened from the start and that the insurance company is the one making things up out of thin air.
3. Ensuring a Proper Recovery
This is a fairly obvious one but I decided to include it nonetheless because it can sometimes be easy to overlook or forget about.
Whether you are out of work due to your injury, working through it on light duty, or have since returned to work, life can get in the way. You are juggling a number of responsibilities like trying to pay the bills, caring for your children, and countless other things. In addition to all of that, the whole workers’ compensation process can often feel overwhelming for injured workers.
In the midst of all of that chaos, you might put your medical treatment on the backburner due to your other priorities. While it is understandable how that can happen, the reality is that delaying treatment or stopping it prematurely can have serious consequences for your recovery.
This is why it is so important to follow the guidance of your doctor and the medical professionals trusted with your care. The last thing you want is for your injury to get worse due to not seeking the treatment you need.
And remember – the medical bills on your established workers’ compensation claim are completely covered, so there is zero cost to you. As a result, it makes sense to prioritize getting the best possible care that you are entitled to under the law.
4. If you want compensation for lost wages, you need medical documentation.
This is a huge one for injured workers who are out of work due to their injury. To be eligible for temporary disability payments for lost wages, you need to have a medical report stating that you are disabled. If you don’t have that, the insurance company might refuse to pay you.
So simply put: if you have been hurt at work in White Plains or anywhere else in New York and are missing time from work, it is recommended that you see a medical professional as soon as possible to get a note saying that you need to remain off work.
If needed, you can even go to an urgent care or a walk-in clinic to get that note. At some point you will probably want to see a specialist depending on the type of injury that you have. You will then follow up with them regularly as directed and get a new doctor’s note each time stating that you must remain out of work.
5. Settlement Amount
In some cases, it might make sense to settle your workers’ compensation claim. Under Section 32 of the Workers’ Compensation Law, you can settle your claim in full or in part.
For a full and final settlement of your claim that includes money for future medical care, the amount of money that you can get in a settlement might be impacted by how much you are currently treating or what the most recent medical reports say about the expectations for future treatment.
In fact, the medical value of a New York workers’ compensation claim can sometimes be more significant than you might realize. This is because unlike most indemnity benefits for lost wages and permanent impairment which are capped at a certain point, medical treatment related to your claim can continue for the rest of your life under New York workers’ compensation.
Especially for younger workers who have decades and decades of life expectancy, even relatively minimal and conservative medical treatment like physical therapy can add up. And think about it: if you are agreeing to settle your claim in full, you want to make sure the dollar value of it is enough to cover the future medical care that you might need.
The problem is that if you stop treating prematurely, the insurance company might argue that the overall dollar value for your settlement is less. In their opinion, they will take your lack of current treatment to mean that there will be less treatment or perhaps no treatment in the future.
If this isn’t really the case, you don’t want to give the insurance company the ability to make this argument by either forgetting to follow up regularly with your medical providers or just giving up.
So the bottom line is this: if you are diligent about following the advice of your doctor and follow up regularly as instructed by them, you can make it a lot easier to get a settlement figure that more accurately reflects the actual expected lifetime medical treatment that you might need.
Conclusion: The Importance of Medical Treatment on Your White Plains Workers’ Compensation Claim
Getting immediate medical treatment and continuing to regularly see your doctor for your White Plains workers’ compensation injury is of the utmost importance to maximize the compensation available to you. Medical treatment can: 1) prove that your injury was work-related; 2) corroborate how the accident happened; 3) help you recover; 4) entitle you to temporary disability benefits if you are out of work; and 5) help ensure that a potential settlement of your claim accurately reflects the amount of future treatment that you will need.
As always, if you have questions about the medical treatment that you might need, you are strongly urged to contact a qualified medical professional immediately. And if you have questions related to the workers’ compensation process, you are encouraged to contact a New York workers’ compensation lawyer for a free consultation.
Get a Free Consultation with a Westchester County Workers’ Compensation Lawyer
If you got hurt at work in White Plains or nearby, please contact the Law Office of Michael J. McConnell right now for your free consultation.
Michael J. McConnell is a Westchester workers’ compensation lawyer dedicated to fighting for the rights of injured workers in White Plains and the rest of Westchester County – including Yonkers, Mount Vernon, and New Rochelle. He also serves the following areas: NYC, Rockland County, Long Island, and the rest of New York State for workers’ compensation matters.
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