Tag Archives: Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court

Why you need an M.D. to prove your work. comp, case, but your employer can slide with a P.A?

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Can a P.A. or nurse practitioner send you back to work?

Nebraska has strict rules about what kind of expert reports can be used in workers’ compensation cases. Often times these strict rules can make it harder for injured workers to collect benefits.

But workers’ compensation insurers and claims administrators play fast and loose with those rules when it suits them. I saw that double-standard in action recently.

In this scenario a medical doctor had taken an individual off work. But a day later, the workers’ compensation adjuster calls the clinic stating the employer has work light work available. Based on the hearsay assurance from an adjuster, a physician’s assistant (P.A.) signs a note returning the injured worker to work

Now if an injured worker went to court and their only medical evidence came from a P.A., that case would likely get dismissed. P.A’s aren’t so-called Rule 10 experts so, their opinions don’t have any legal weight unless they are signed by a doctor.

But when a workers’ compensation insurer wants to avoid paying temporary benefits for a lost time injury, a P.A’s report without a doctor’s signature is just fine.

So, yes a  P.A. or nurse practitioner can send you back to work. An injured worker who doesn’t go back to work after getting a return-to-work note signed only be such a provider risk getting fired. Because of the at-will employment doctrine, the judges who often decide wrongful termination cases on summary judgment aren’t likely going to split legal hairs in favor an injured worker who disregard a return-to-work note signed by a P.A.

But workers can take some steps to protect themselves from unfair treatment from a medical clinic and or workers’ compensation insurer.

Pick your doctor

Occupational medicine clinics or so-called “workers comp. doctors” tend to let insurance companies and nurse case managers more or less draft their medical records. Employers like to route their employees to these clinics. Employees have a right to see their own doctor, but employers often try to cajole and threaten workers to seek treatment at occupational medicine clinics.

Have your own doctor

Doctors are a lot less likely to let a workers’ compensation insurer call the shots in the treatment for an injured worker if they have a relationship with the patient. In short, if you have insurance get a family doctor. It’s very possible your health insurance plan covers a free annual physical. But many workers’ don’t have a regular doctor and insurers take advantage of this fact in a workers’ compensation case.

Talk your union or to an attorney

Workers can also talk to their union if they think their insurer or medical provider is being unfair about their work injury. Though not everyone is represented by a union, you can also contact a workers’ compensation attorney with those concerns.

Often an attorney can’t force an insurer to pay workers’ compensation benefits instantly. Insurers can often delay payment of workers’ compensation benefits without legal penalty.  But if an employer is relying on the opinion of a P.A. or nurse practitioner to deny workers’ compensation benefits, a decent attorney can force an employer to pay penalties and attorney fees to the employee if they go to court.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Does Workers’ Comp Cover Injuries Resulting from Original Claim?

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If an injury or an accident would not have happened if you weren’t already injured in the first place, then workers’ comp should pay for it.

Many times an injured worker is taken off work and is further injured at home.  Or someone may sustain another accident and injury while traveling to a medical appointment or picking up their medications.  Does workers’ compensation coverage extend to these additional accidents and injuries?

In Nebraska, it does. 

For example, Mr. Smidt slipped and fell on the ice at his home when he returned from physical therapy; Ms. Baker was involved in a motor-vehicle collision going to her doctor’s appointment. Mr. Johnson, who had a broken ankle, fell down his stairs because he lost his balance, so he sustained another fracture injury.  These are common scenarios of a worker who gets injured at work and sustains further injuries or another accident as a result of the original work accident.

These events can be described as “quasi-course of employment” and focus on the activities and circumstances that an injured employee encounters following an injury, though they take place outside the time and space limits of a worker’s normal employment. 

Even though these events would not be considered employment activities for usual purposes, they are nevertheless related to the employment in the sense that they are necessary and/or reasonable activities that would not have been undertaken if not for the original compensable accident and injury.

If you or a friend has something like this happen but the insurance carrier is not taking responsibility for the additional injury and medical care, contact an experienced attorney to investigate and file a claim.  Protect yourself, your friends, and your family from paying for shouldering medical expenses for additional injuries that are compensable.

 

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Image: Boaz Yiftach / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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An example of why some work comp settlements should be approved by courts

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Nebraska requires under Neb. Rev. Stat. 48-139 that all workers compensation settlements involving workers not represented by counsel be approved by the workers compensation court. Last week I came across an example of why this law is good policy.

Luckily for my client, this “agreement” is not valid so he can compensated to the full extent of the law for his work injuries.

I signed up a client who was injured in a roof collapse while doing demolition work at a local bar last Sunday. The employer drafted a “full satisfaction and release” of client’s work comp claim for $45 and for payment of my client’s emergency room visit the day of the accident. For an injured worker without health insurance the prospect of having not having potentially expensive ER treatment paid for is a powerful incentive not to pursue their rights under their jurisdiction’s workers compensation statute. Luckily for my client, this “agreement” is not valid so he can compensated to the full extent of the law for his work injuries. In my experience, this type of interference with the exercise of an injured employee’s right to workers compensation is not typical. Thankfully, Nebraska law recognizes that some employers will try to interfere with an injured workers right to compensation and provides procedural safeguards to prevent employer abuse.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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