Minnesota Workers Compensation & Work Place Injury Overview
The workers’ compensation system in Minnesota provides benefits if you become injured or ill from your job. Workers’ compensation covers injuries or illnesses caused or made worse by work or the workplace.
An important and often overlooked fact is that workers’ compensation benefits are paid regardless of any fault of either the employer or employee. Every employer or company with employees working within the state of Minnesota must carrier workers compensation insurance. Employees injured while working for uninsured employers may obtain benefits directly from the Minnesota Special Compensation Fund.
Workers’ compensation pays for:
- • medical care related to the injury, as long as it is reasonable and necessary;
- • wage-loss benefits for your income loss;
• benefits for permanent damage to a body function;
• benefits to your dependents if you die of a work injury; and
• vocational rehabilitation services if you need assistance returning to your job or cannot return to your job or to the employer you had before your injury.
If the insurer accepts your claim for benefits:
- • The insurer must send you a copy of the Notice of Insurer’s Primary Liability Determination form stating your claim is accepted.
- • The insurer must start paying wage-loss benefits within 14 days of the day your employer was informed about your work injury and lost wages. The insurer must pay benefits at the same intervals you were paid wages.
• For injuries between Oct. 1, 2000, and Sept. 30, 2008, after you have been paid 52 weeks of temporary total disability benefits, the insurer must notify you in writing of the 104-week limitation on payment of this benefit.
• For injuries on or after Oct. 1, 2008, after you have been paid 52 weeks of temporary total disability benefits, the insurer must notify you in writing of the 130-week limitation on payment of this benefit.
• Before 80 weeks of wage-loss benefits have been paid, the insurer must notify you the time limit for you to request retraining
If the insurer denies your claim for benefits:
- • Immediately contact an experienced workers compensation attorney. In Minnesota there are very crucial notice requirements that may prevent the receipt of benefits. It is important you contact an attorney TODAY to protect you benefits.
Minnesota Workers Compensation Injury Check List
1. PROMPTLY REPORT THE INJURY.
An injured worker must report a work injury to his or her employer, unless the employer has actual knowledge of the injury.
2. IMMEDIATELY OBTAIN PROPER AND PROMPT MEDICAL TREATMENT.
An employee is entitled to payment of medical, psychological, chiropractic, and other treatment for a work-related condition. This includes any treatment which is reasonable and necessary to cure and relieve the effects of a work injury. The injured worker has the absolute right to choose his or her treating doctor for a work injury. The employee can change doctors within 60 days after medical treatment has commenced, without getting the permission of the employer, insurer, or other interested parties. An insurance company often will not agree to allow you go change a physician after 60 days but the attorneys at Minnesota Disability can provide you with the assistance to force the insurance company to provide you with the best treatment you need even if this means changing your physician after 60 days.
3. SEEK IMMEDIATE LEGAL REPRESENTATION.
The single biggest surprise by our clients is that they thought they were receiving all of the benefits entitled to them by their employer and the insurance company and they were NOT! The claim representative does NOT represent you the injured worker. They will provide you only the benefits they perceive you may be entitled to and sometimes even not even those. Trust us when we tell you that the insurance company places a value on your claim often called “reserves” immediately after your injury is reported. Providing benefits that increase these “reserves” means lengthy meetings and claim reviews that some adjusters simply aren’t willing to undertake with their heavy case loads.
Minnesota Disability attorney Thomas Atkinson have tough, smart lawyers with decades of experience in evaluating injured workers claims and ensuring that we get EVERY dollar and injured worker is entitled under Minnesota law!
4. PROVIDE A TRUTHFUL STATEMENT.
Other than the notice requirement, Minnesota law does not require the employee to submit to a statement, whether written, verbal, over the phone, in person, or otherwise, to either the employer or the insurer. The employer and insurer may not condition workers’ compensation benefits on the employee providing such a statement.
5. RESPOND PROMPTLY TO A NOTICE OF INTENT TO DISCONTINUE BENEFITS.
Weekly workers’ compensation benefits can be discontinued only by serving the injured worker with a written Notice of Intention to Discontinue Benefits. If the discontinuance is caused by the employee’s returning to work, then the employee can contest the NOID within 30 days. If the NOID states a reason other than return to work, then the employee must request a hearing within 12 calendar days after the NOID is filed. There will then be an administrative conference on the discontinuance scheduled within ten days. At the conference, the issue is whether the employer and insurer had reasonable grounds to discontinue the benefits. Usually, the employee will be paid the weekly benefits through the date of the discontinuance conference, even if the judge determines that the employer and insurer were entitled to discontinue the benefits.
If the employee fails to request the conference on a timely basis, then the employee can file an Objection to Discontinuance. A hearing before a compensation judge will be scheduled on the objection on an expedited basis, usually within 60 days. If the injured worker does not either request a conference on the NOID or file an Objection to Discontinuance, then the employee may file a Claim Petition alleging entitlement to the discontinued benefits. Failure to follow any of these procedures can have a dramatic and IMMEDIATE affect on your current receipt of wage loss benefits and may delay a hearing on the issue.
6. DON’T GET STUCK WITH THE WRONG QRC.
The employee has an absolute right to choose which qualified rehabilitation consultant (QRC) to provide statutory rehabilitation services where appropriate. If the employer or insurer chooses the QRC, the employee can change QRCs within 60 days after the rehabilitation plan is filed. After 60 days following the filing of the plan, the employee has to seek court approval for changing the QRC; the standard is usually whether changing the QRC is in the best interests of all parties.
7. INVESTIGATE A POSSIBLE THIRD PARTY CLAIM.
Workers’ compensation benefits are the exclusive remedy an employee has against the employer following an on-the-job injury. If the injury is caused by the negligence of a third party, however, the employee may have the right to sue for damages, including non-workers’ compensation damages. This can mean an automobile accident case, premises liability case, or product liability case. It is often vitally important to investigate such third party claims promptly, and to ensure that evidence related to such a claim is not lost or destroyed.
8. BE PREPARED FOR AN INDEPENDENT/ADVERSE MEDICAL EXAMINATION.
The employer and insurer have the right to have an injured worker examined by a doctor of their choice for an independent/adverse medical examination. The examination must be scheduled within 150 miles of the employee’s residence, and the employer and insurer generally have to pay for costs incurred in attending the examination, including mileage, parking, meals, and wage loss, if any. The independent/adverse medical examinations are sometimes used by the employer and insurer to claim that the injured workers’ symptoms are inconsistent; have no objective medical basis; were related to an injury or condition that pre-existed the work injury; are not cause for work restrictions; are not permanent; or that medical treatment or proposed medical treatment is not reasonable and necessary. These opinions can be very harmful to the continued receipt of workers’ compensation benefits.
9. RETURNING TO WORK AT AN UNSUITABLE JOB OR REFUSING TO RETURN TO A SUITABLE JOB.
An injured worker’s right to many types of workers’ compensation benefits can be terminated if the worker refuses an offer of employment that is either consistent with the rehabilitation plan developed by the QRC, or, if there is no rehabilitation plan, is an offer of gainful employment. In either event, the job offer must be something the employee can do in his or her physical condition. Often, there is a tension between the treating doctor’s recommendations regarding work, and an adverse medical examination report on work ability or the employer’s interpretation of the treating doctor’s recommendations. An employee can be placed in a position of either accepting a job contrary to his or her own doctor’s wishes, possibly risking further injury, and risking disciplinary action by the employer for failing to carry out the job duties as expected; or refusing a job offer, and risking termination of workers’ compensation benefits and possibly of the employment itself.
The injured worker’s benefits may also be discontinued upon termination for “misconduct”. “Misconduct” standards under unemployment are NOT the same standards as workers compensation. The attorneys from Minnesota Disability have litigated this issue numerous times over the years and even employee’s who sustain work related injuries and are later terminated for misconduct can receive workers compensation benefits.
10. SETTLEMENT OF CASE WITHOUT AN ATTORNEY.
NEVER sign a stipulation for settlement without the assistance of an experience workers’ compensation attorney! The attorneys at Minnesota Disability will review your proposed settlement to ensure you are receiving EVERY DOLLAR you are entitled to under the law. We often find large oversights where your entitlement to benefits by the insurance company was misstated or not fully explained. Contact us TODAY for a free consultation and evaluation of your claim.