What You Need to Know About Workers’ Compensation

FAQs

• What does workers' compensation actually cover?

  Mike Morse explained that in auto accident cases the biggest component is pain and suffering, but workers’ comp has none of that: it covers your wages, your medical bills and a little mileage. Peter Woll said that if you get hurt at work and can’t earn your wage, you’re supposed to get wage loss and medical benefits until you go back to work.

• What should you do if you're injured on the job in Michigan?

  Woll said you have to tell your employer, and the employer is supposed to report it to its insurance company. He said that for the first 28 days you’re supposed to see the insurance company’s doctor, such as Concentra, rather than your own doctor; under Governor Snyder that went from ten days to 28. In an emergency, he said, you go to the emergency room.

• What happens if your workers' comp claim gets denied?

  Woll said insurance companies often ignore claims or deny them, for example by pointing to an old injury, and that he thinks 40% of people just don’t do anything about it. If you aren’t getting your wage loss and know you’ll be out for a while, he said, you’ll have to call him, and he will file a case with the workers’ comp agency, a separate jurisdiction. He said it takes approximately a year to get benefits.

• How did Governor Snyder's changes make it harder to get workers' comp benefits?

  Woll said it used to be that if you got hurt and couldn’t do your job, you were supposed to get paid. Under Governor Snyder, he said, you have to show you can’t work anywhere making the same amount of money, and insurers will always argue you could get some other job, such as a greeter at Walmart, regardless of whether those jobs exist. He said that changed insurance companies’ attitude toward paying claims.

• Do you have to keep looking for work to keep receiving workers' comp benefits?

  Woll said that to be entitled to benefits while disabled, you have to show you’ve looked for work within your restrictions. By definition, he said, that includes people on Social Security disability and people who are in comas or paralyzed, which he called absurd and said was enacted to make it tougher to get benefits. He said the number of searches has to be reasonable, and he tells people to keep track in a notebook.