Every worker, including part-time employees and those who fill seasonal positions at a business, can potentially receive workers’ compensation benefits if they get hurt on the job or a doctor diagnoses them with a health condition caused by their employment. Very few employers in the U.S. are subject to any kind of exemption from workers’ compensation coverage.
Of course, workers’ compensation systems are notorious for subjecting workers to red tape. Workers have to carefully comply with rules and fill out confusing paperwork to get basic benefits. Given that many employers offer healthcare insurance cost-sharing and paid time off (PTO) as employment benefits, workers may not see the value in initiating a complicated claim for benefits when they could just use their PTO and health insurance to achieve the same goals. As a result, it is understandable that many employees question “Why is applying for workers’ compensation a worthwhile endeavor?”.
Workers don’t have to pay for their treatment
Even the best private insurance policies pass a portion of the costs on to the patient. Many policies have deductibles that require thousands of dollars of patient payments. Policies frequently also include coinsurance, which makes the patient responsible for a flat percentage of their treatment costs, up to a maximum patient responsibility amount that could be tens of thousands of dollars. The full medical coverage that doesn’t pass anything on to the patient is one very convincing financial reason to use workers’ compensation benefits instead of private health insurance.
Workers don’t lose their PTO
Many companies only give a few weeks of paid leave annually, if that, to their employees. If a worker completely uses up what time they have accrued to protect their income after an injury or illness caused by their employment, they won’t have any time left if there is some other personal emergency that arises. Although the workers’ compensation disability benefits won’t fully replace someone’s and come the way that PTO typically does, it can be beneficial to reserve someone’s PTO for when they need it and would not qualify for workers’ compensation disability benefits.
Workers can have help getting accommodations
When there is a workers’ compensation claim underway, there is a paper trail establishing that a worker has a disabling medical condition and a doctor tasked with overseeing their care. Should that physician recommend limitations or adjustments to someone’s job responsibilities, it will be easier for the worker to seek support from their employer. Ideally, employers cooperating with the physician overseeing someone’s treatment can potentially keep someone on the job despite their injuries or get them back to work much more quickly.
Although there can be challenges involved in seeking workers’ compensation benefits, many employees dealing with an injury or job-related medical condition discover that the effort is worthwhile. Ultimately, pursuing a workers’ compensation claim can limit how much of a financial impact a job-related medical condition has on someone’s finances.
