Does Workers’ Compensation Fund Rehabilitation?
Going to work is how we earn money to pay all our bills and live a good life. A certain amount of drudgery is associated with any job, regardless of how much you’re getting paid. We’d all prefer to be on vacation. However, if an injury that occurred on the job prevents you from working, you’ll want to find a way to be compensated for medical expenses and lost wages. You also want to be rehabilitated to return to your job or follow a new career path.
Workers’ compensation benefits can provide you with payments for medical bills and your missing salary. Does workers’ compensation fund rehabilitation? In most states, it does. As with any government-sponsored program, there are regulations and limitations you need to understand before you can benefit from the rehabilitation aspect of the workers’ compensation program.
Filing For Vocational Rehabilitation
As stated by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), vocational rehabilitation aims “to help you return to work as quickly as possible, to a job compatible with the work restrictions provided by your physician, with pay as close as possible to your pre-injury wages.”
Vocational rehabilitation is designed to get you back to the same job you were working at before the injury. That allows your employer to avoid training new personnel and gives you a chance to pick up where you left off in terms of your career advancement. Vocational rehabilitation can help with that plan.
Consider the injury of a broken arm. According to the Cleveland Clinic, a fractured arm can mean wearing a cast for several weeks while the arm heals. When the cast comes off, your doctor will conduct an exam with two results: They will clear you for work or recommend physical therapy.
After physical therapy, your doctor will need to provide a Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI) report. The DOL defines the MMI as “when the covered illness is stabilized and is unlikely to improve with or without additional medical treatment.” Even with an MMI, you might be unable to return to your previous job. In that case, you can apply for vocational rehabilitation, which can help you develop skills for a new job.
To file for vocational rehabilitation, you must demonstrate the same worker compensation requirements. Those requirements are as follows:
- You must be an employee
- Your employer must have workers’ compensation insurance
- Your injury was work-related
- You reported the injury within your state’s mandated timeframe
How the Rehabilitation Program Works
Physical therapy and vocational rehabilitation provide a lot of the same benefits but with different targets. With physical therapy (PT), you will work with a certified physical therapist who will engage you in a series of exercises designed to restore your normal range of motion lost because of the injury. PT can also help reduce your chronic pain and overall stiffness. It is important to complete your entire course of PT even if you start feeling better after a few sessions.
Vocational rehabilitation might also engage you in exercises to restore a range of motion and to help reduce pain, but the specific targets are to help you learn a new set of skills to help you get back to work. That work might be with a different company in a completely different type of job. One way to look at vocational rehabilitation is with your handwriting. Imagine if your injury was to the hand, you write with, but you can no longer use that hand for writing. Vocational rehabilitation can train you to write with your other hand.
With either type of rehabilitation, you will probably be assigned a case manager or vocational counselor. This is the person who will coordinate communication between your therapists and employer. They will be able to update your employer on your progress and whether you’ll be able to return to the same job. The case manager can also explore the options for transitioning to a new company.
Claim Limitations
There are limitations to rehabilitation benefits. For instance, those benefits don’t pay for college or extended learning courses. You also can’t ask for moving expenses if you relocate to find work. Transitioning to a new job doesn’t mean opening your own business. You are entitled to do that, but your rehabilitation payments most likely won’t extend to helping you with your own business. They are only meant to help you find work in existing companies.
There might be additional issues with your employer not providing the full documentation of your injury or medical care. That could lead to the workers’ compensation insurance carrier not covering your treatment. You will benefit from speaking with the Thomas Law Offices in those instances. We have dealt with dozens of workers’ compensation appeals. We can provide the information you need to decide the best course of action for handling your worker’s compensation claim.
