When you spend about a third of your life at work, injuries are inevitable. In 2019 alone, the National Safety Council’s injury fact sheet reported 48. 3 million injuries and 173,040 preventable deaths in the office. (And those are just the figures that were reported. )
With few exceptions, Utah law requires employers to purchase workers’ pay insurance for workers injured on the job. This helps cover medical expenses and provides a modest salary to workers until they can return to work. In the event of a permanent injury or death on the job, workers’ reimbursement insurance will pay disability benefits to the worker or death benefits to the worker’s family. It doesn’t matter if the twist of fate is the fault of the employer or the worker.
But staff reimbursement is not a get-rich-quick program. The benefits are minimal and are primarily designed to help keep staff families afloat while staff are injured on the job. Most staff would forgo their staff’s reimbursement benefits in the blink of an eye. One eye did mean that the original twist of fate or injury never happened. Even with modest insurance coverage, the path to physical and monetary is never easy.
A workers’ reimbursement insurance corporation encourages workers to stay safe with the slogan “Be careful there. “at your disposal to delay or avoid payment altogether.
This is the case with James (whose genuine call has been changed) before seeking the help of a professional attorney.
Trapped in Guatemala in a coma
James broke his ankle after falling off a ladder at work while installing a cable television set on the roof of a client’s home. He rushed to the nearest rural hospital and was later evacuated to a primary trauma center in Utah because he was also a hemophiliac. After surgery to fix his ankle and several weeks of rehabilitation (including “factor eight” blood clotting treatment), he was discharged from the hospital.
Less than a month after his release, he asked his doctor if he could go to Guatemala to make a stopover with his family. The doctor said, “I don’t see why. By the time he arrived in Dallas-Ft. Worth, his leg had begun to hurt, swell and redden. When he landed in Guatemala, his leg was black and he was taken directly to the hospital from the airport. James underwent surgery and spent 3 months in a coma in Guatemala before being transported (at a wonderful cost) to Miami, Florida where he spent another six months recovering.
Eventually, he grew strong enough to return to Utah and spent another 3 months in the hospital he was originally sent to.
James covered through fitness insurance, but still charged more than $600,000 for copays, deductibles, coinsurance and expenses that exceeded the limits of his fitness insurance policy. He planned to file for bankruptcy.
The workers’ reimbursement company denied that any of the blood-clotting disorders it encountered on its flight to Guatemala were similar to his damaged ankle, surgery or blood-clotting treatment.
Davis
Most injuries go unnoticed
What happened to James can easily happen to you or your loved ones.
In 2019, the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said it was a major contributor. The U. S. Department of Health and Prevention reported that an average of 2. 8 consisting of one hundred full-time employees were injured on the job that year. The maximum of non-fatal non-unusual injuries were sprains, strains and tears. Maximum not unusual cause of work-related deaths.
When it comes to the lasting effects of an injury or death in the office, the last thing you need is a monetary burden. However, many staff members are not aware of the benefits that come through staff compensation. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports that a significant proportion of injuries in the office go unreported and has proposed modifying its record-keeping procedure to provide more accurate accounting.
Have you been injured on the job? Get help!
If you suspect you’re not getting the reimbursement you deserve for an injury or illness, it’s vital that you act quickly. Leave Davis’ award-winning team of attorneys.
Contact them today to get what you need.