In order to claim workers’ compensation, your work-related injury must be serious enough to need medical treatment and adequate rest from working.
Your employer may prove that your injury is not serious enough to give you access to workers’ compensation if:
• You have tried to continue working even after the injury
• You postponed getting medical treatment even after learning about your injury. To ensure you get properly compensated, you must immediately seek medical treatment for your injury and inform your doctor that the injury happened at work.
Once your injury heals, your doctor will allow you to return to work. Your request for additional compensation benefits may then be denied.
When your injury is neither improving nor getting worse, your condition is called Permanent and Stationary (P&S). Your primary treating physician must write a P&S (Permanent and Stationary) report once you have reached a maximal medical improvement (MMI). In this report, your physician will state:
• Your specific medical problems. Like the limitations in moving your injured body parts.
• The medical needs that you will be needing in the future.
• If you are already able to return to work.
• How much of your injury was caused by your work accident or by other factors?
This P&S report will be submitted to the claims administrator. It will determine the future benefits you will get from your workers’ compensation. Be sure to receive a copy of this report.