New York is the commercial and creative hub of the United States, and that’s not up for debate. Where there’s this much activity, accidents happen. If you’re one of the lucky three million professionals in the state, you’re likely to need the services of a Worker’s Comp Doctor at some point.
Millions of people worldwide dream of working in this dynamic place with its skyscrapers and panoramic views of success. Some even give up comfortable lives in their home cities in pursuit of that lifestyle, which is why there’s a healthy mix of white-collar and blue-collar employees to keep the American economy humming.
However, if you experience a personal injury while doing your job in New York, you’ll soon discover that it is one of the world’s most litigious places for compensation cases. Profit goals remain a priority in this competitive environment, and there’s a wealth of intellectual capital to enforce that directive. Even with insurance coverage, local businesses lose much over a compensation claim from injured workers.
What is Workers’ Compensation?
Legal professionals refer to it as workers’ comp or workman’s insurance. It’s an insurance policy that businesses provide to their employees to protect them from financial ruin in the wake of a work-related injury. New York workers’ compensation law requires all enterprises to provide financial assistance to all their employees with a valid injury claim.
Workers’ compensation claims can bankrupt a business, so they hire third-party insurance companies with their own workers’ compensation doctor, legal advice teams, and insurance adjusters. If there’s a claim, the insurance adjuster will investigate it and determine whether the company’s policies for workplace injuries cover the situation.
For example, some workers have pre-existing conditions that could play a role in an accident claim, so adjusters require legal access to the worker’s medical record.
What Does Workers’ Compensation Give You in New York?
Many employees don’t apply for workers’ compensation for minor accidents. However, even seemingly insignificant injuries can have lasting effects on the body. W on policies in New York cover a broad range of conditions, and if you’re doing your job correctly, your employer and its insurance company should be doing the same.
COVID-19 became one of the most significant worries of American workers in 2020. In New York, if you caught COVID-19 while performing your duties, your employer’s policy should have covered your medical treatment and pain management. It should also have provided payment for the days you couldn’t come to work.
Carriers transmit COVID-19 with airborne droplets, so a claim should prove that you caught it on the job. Other infectious diseases might also be eligible for workers’ compensation if you can prove you saw it while working, including hepatitis, tuberculosis, staph infections, and zoonoses. People who contracted COVID-19 were put into home quarantine with periodic visits from a treating physician that workers’ compensation should have covered, as well.
Does New York Workers’ Comp Cover Temporary Disabilities?
A comprehensive workers’ comp policy is essential for anybody in the medical field. Most employees think that workers’ compensation is exclusive to diseases on the job or doesn’t cover temporary disabilities that can hinder an employee from working. However, the effects of workplace accidents and diseases go far beyond the building.
For example, when truck drivers have auto accidents, a workers’ compensation policy should cover the hospital stay, physical therapy, and medication (if you were not the cause of the mishap). Your company’s third-party insurance provider would perform an independent physical test with their workers’ comp doctor to determine your disability and a possible return to work. If your temporary disability stops you from working, you may have a valid compensation claim.
If you need to be off work for more than seven days, the New York workers’ compensation law states that your employer’s policy should partially replace your income. The amount you receive will depend on your salary before you were temporarily disabled and the extent of your injuries. If a doctor declares that you are disabled, your company should give you two-thirds of what you make on your usual pay schedule, subject to a predetermined policy limit.
Does New York Workers’ Comp Cover Permanent Disabilities?
Permanent disability often inspires pictures of paralysis, severe burns, or other devastating injuries, but it can also be a small problem that changes someone’s world. For example, a pilot can’t work with hearing in only one ear, and fashion models aren’t employable with extensive skin issues or scarring.
If you acquire a permanent disability that will hinder you from going back to work, New York will require your employer to pay you higher compensation. An insurance firm and your employer will calculate the amount based on the type of injury and your average historical earnings.
For a permanent partial disability claim, it will depend on the part of your body that an accident or illness renders ineffectual. For example, a disabled eye is generally more serious than an injured toe unless you’re a professional ballet dancer.
Whatever your situation, it’s essential that you work with our workers’ compensation attorney to make sure your claim is taken seriously and represented well along official channels.
Limits of Workers’ Comp in New York
Before you submit a workers’ comp claim, you will need to evaluate the circumstances surrounding an accident or the transmission of an illness. Workers’ compensation will not cover: a work injury while under the influence of alcohol or drugs
an injury after you start a fight with a client or colleague,self-harm psychological or emotional damages unrelated to the physical trauma within the workplace.
Tips to Find the Right Doctor for Your Workplace Injury
Expert Workers Compensation Doctors
You don’t just need medical professionals who understand your injuries. They need to comprehend the stress and difficulties associated with workplace injuries in particular.
Mental health plays a huge part in how an individual participates in their recovery care plan. Financial stress and being forced back to work before a person feels ready can add to it. Feelings of frustration or of being misunderstood can all complicate and slow down a person’s healing process.
You need to find workers compensation doctors and medical professionals that have experience supporting patients through their injury, compensation claims, and recovery. In order to treat injured workers’ in New York, doctors need to be Authorized Providers by the NYS Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB).
Doctors that have dealt with the WCB regularly will offer a level of emotional support you’ll appreciate. As you attempt to meet all the administration and documentation requirements, you’ll be sure to want their advice.
One doctor can’t necessarily treat everything that is going on with you. They need a team to do it effectively.
You want a medical team that can successfully provide a whole-person care approach. You’ll want medical professionals available to manage any health concerns and facilitate the best care plan possible.
Take time to consider the importance of a healthcare team that includes the following services:
Neurology Specialists
General practitioners are trained well to take care of general health concerns. You need a doctor that specializes in treating your injuries.
There are medical breakthroughs, gains in research, and advancements made every day in every area of medicine. No general practitioner can stay up-to-date on all of it.
That’s why you want a specifically trained doctor to manage any bone or nerve injuries. Proper treatment from the onset of injury or pain can help avoid complications.
Diagnostic Team
It’s crucial to have a team that is connected and working together. Rather than several different teams that don’t communicate. You can cut down on delays in treatment and miscommunication issues. Working with a medical team that provides diagnostic testing and on-site labs in one office will minimize delays.
There is a lot more to recovery and rehabilitation than a few X-rays and a visit or two to the doctor. Often the best quality of life can be offered to a patient by including support services in the care plan and integrated health team.
Physiotherapists and Chiropractors can work hand-in-hand with physicians. They can help create a well-rounded treatment plan for each individual patient.
Communication is seamless and there are no delays in changes to the treatment plan. Information is relayed to the other services immediately because they all work together.
Pain Management
One of the most difficult parts of dealing with a workplace injury can often be emotional. The effect of being in pain and unable to work can place on a person.
When the injury includes a great deal of pain it can have a negative impact on every area of a person’s life. It can affect their overall physical and mental health.
Learning how to cope with chronic pain can be an overwhelming prospect. It’s important to feel supported throughout your journey back to health. Pain management can assist you in having a good quality of life while managing pain.
Pain management specialists can help you learn coping techniques and come up with an individual treatment plan to cope with pain symptoms.
It’s crucial to take care of your mental health. General medical professionals often don’t have the time or the expertise to truly support their patients in this aspect of care.
You will want workers compensation doctors that have experience and expertise in psychiatry and pain management as a part of your medical treatment team.
Even if you don’t feel the need for support in this area now, things can change, you may have times during your recovery where these services will be appreciated both for your mental health and for your workers’ compensation claim process.
Paperwork in a Paperless World
Computers were created to help make it a paperless world. But it seems no one told the government that because they love their paperwork and you’ll have to fill out a ton of it by the time all is said and done with a worker’s compensation claim.
It can seem overwhelming when you’re handed a stack of forms. You, your employer, and your healthcare professionals are required to submit copies for proof of injuries and treatment.
You will need to include documentation to support and prove each claim. Any changes will need to be documented and reported with test results and professional consultation updates as treatments continue.
The right workers’ compensation doctors will know how to gather comprehensive diagnostic proof and documentation to support your claim. They will be able to help you navigate the system so that you can receive the rehabilitative support you need to get back to work as quickly and safely as possible.
Claims can be denied or delayed and services refused because there is not enough significant or appropriate medical documentation. As such, make sure you follow their advice and gather all the information you may need.
This will save you time and aggravation because you won’t have to run around trying to make sure you have everything in place when your doctor has had to fill out the paper and deal with WCB hundreds of times.
More Personalized Recovery Plan
Many workplace injuries occur because of repetitive actions or happen from performing a task you’ve done a hundred times before. This means the chance of re-injury, in the same manner, is a strong possibility without the right rehabilitation and recovery plan.
A workplace condition such as carpal tunnel syndrome isn’t going to have a chance to completely heal if you just take a week off work until it’s not so sore. You’ll then return to performing the same tasks using the same tendons, nerves, and muscles in the same way you developed the injury in the first place.
You need physicians, physical therapists and medical professionals that understand the contributing factors and dynamics of workplace injuries. This will enable you to receive the proper care and rehabilitation plan for your life.
It doesn’t do you any good for a doctor to tell you “If your arm hurts when you use it, just don’t use it”. You need to be able to make a living and you need a doctor that understands your struggle and the demands that your job has on your body.
It’s not just about stopping the immediate symptoms. It’s about making you as healthy and productive in life as possible.
Multi-Specialty Care Plan
The more consolidated your care team is, the less running around all across New York you’ll have to do. You need a comprehensive care plan with a well-rounded medical team that is easy for you to access.
When you end up having to see several specialists get tests done, you don’t want them all being scattered across the state and none of them communicating with each other.
You want a multi-specialty medical team that works together to come up with the best plan for your overall health. The more they can communicate together and collaborate on your rehabilitation and recovery, the more quickly you’ll be able to complete your claim, recover from your injury and return to work and to feeling your best.
A multi-faceted care team will also be able to treat all injuries or symptoms simultaneously. You won’t have to wait for one doctor’s care plan to lead you to a referral for another physician or course of treatment. When all of your team are under the same care center, you can address all the issues at once and return to work more quickly.
Contact Workers Comp Doctor For More Information about NY Workers’ Compensation
Workers’ Comp Doctor offers dedicated injury and accident professionals who will advise you on your situation in and around New York. Most workers’ comp claims and negotiations are smoother in the experienced hands of our professionals. We know how to impartially represent your health and well-being while navigating the complex state laws.
No matter how many platitudes executives make at shareholder meetings, a business is about money. Employees can sometimes stand in the way of a healthy bottom line, and you will need a patient advocate from a Workers’ Comp Doctor to support you through the process.
Call (888) 590-4030 or make a booking on our website to see how we can help you today.