If you have been injured on the job for the first time, you may be confused on what you should do. It is important that you take the right steps, however, to ensure you receive worker's compensation from your company. This will ensure that you are reimbursed for things like lost time from work, medical care, etc. To help you, below are three tips to help you get started after the injury takes place.
1. Report the Injury Immediately
As soon as are injured report it to someone at your place of business. This is even true if you are not sure you are hurt badly enough to warrant missed time from work. You never know if a small injury will end up turning into a much larger one. For example, you may hurt your back and only have a dull pain now, but the pain may become more severe a day or two later.
Reporting the injury immediately will start the ball rolling faster so you can start receiving the compensation much sooner.
2. See the Doctor Immediately
As soon as you are hurt you need to stop working and see a doctor immediately. Talk with your employer and let them know what happened and that you need to seek medication attention. If you do not seek treatment immediately, your employer may question your claim. For example, if you fall at the beginning of the day but do not report it until the end of the day the employer may not believe you.
Once you receive medical attention make sure you tell the doctor this is a workers' compensation claim. The doctor will then ensure they write everything down about your injury that your employer will need, such as the type of injury, when it happened, treatment needed, etc.
3. Contact a Workers' Compensation Attorney
Contact a workers' compensation attorney in the beginning to ensure you do everything correctly. For example, your employer will likely as you to sign a form to gain access to your medical records. You should sign this form, but you do need to make sure the form only gives your employer access to the medical records that relate to your work accident. If your employer offers you this form do not sign it until you have a workers' compensation lawyer look at it.
The workers' compensation attorney will also know of all forms you need to fill out and submit.
Talk to the workers' compensation attorney that you hire for much more information.
