SEE THE RIGHT DOCTOR FIRST!
I want to get you to the right doctor; seeing the wrong doctor can end all benefits.
Talk to a professional experienced with Inland Empire, L.A. County and Orange County doctors (and WCAB Judges).
Do NOT count on an insurance 'Nurse' (or an adjuster) to get you a doctor!!
A lawyer costs you nothing until the end of the claim. The Insurance Company pays the lawyer out of your final recovery...you never write a check.
Beware the "TV guy" who doesn't know the approved doctors; you could end up with nothing.
Did you know...
Your employer can send you to doctors who write lies about you?
Your employer can send you to a company clinic where you are seeing someone who isn't a real doctor?
- Picking a doctor blindly from a list can in a report stating you were never injured on the job??
And did you know...
1. Injuries reported after your job ends are not compensible!
BE SMART: Once you realize it's a work injury, do NOT phone it in. Send a note by fax; it needs to say you are injured at work and need care. Save a fax transmission report.
People who phone to a supervisor they are hurt and need care can find they were fired before they got the chance to hand in a written Claim Form, and have their claim denied with no chance to see a doctor!
SEE a DR. ASAP: One exception to the claim being non-compensible is to report the injury to a physician BEFORE you are let go. The work-connection to the injury should be in the doctor's notes.
PROBLEM: Trouble is, most doctors won't write in your chart that your injury is work-related (because your private insurance won't cover a work injury). You must find doctor familiar with Workers Comp.
NOTE: Limping around the job site in pain and telling co-workers your job makes you hurt is NOT reporting a work injury.
WARNING! Limping around or phoning in sick will likely convince your employer to fire you before you report the pain as a work-related injury.
Wait too long, or wait until you are laid off or let go, and your claim is not compensible.
2. One-Year Deadline!
You have one year from the date of the injury to report that injury to your employer...so long as you still work there.
The longer you wait, the more likely the insurer thinks you are making it all up.
The longer you wait, the harder it will be to prove you are telling the truth.
3. Afraid to report your work injury because you'll be fired? You're protected.
Labor Code 132(a) provides for penalties against Employers who terminate people for reporting a work injury.
Employers who terminate people right after they report a work injury get to hire an expensive lawyer, and then explain to a judge why they fired a worker right after that worker reported the work injury.
But Injured Workers who wait until AFTER they are laid-off or fired cannot go forward.
Be Smart. Get REAL Workers' Compensation help.
False claims and false denials. Any person who makes or causes to be made any knowingly false or fraudulent material statement or material representation for the purpose of obtaining or denying workers' compensation benefits or payments is guilty of a felony and may be fined and imprisoned.
