5 Difficulties Florida Workers Face When Filing Worker’s Compensation Claims
Brian O Sutter
Traffic Accidents
Receiving workers compensation benefits in the state of Florida after suffering a workplace injury can be a surprisingly difficult endeavor. Florida is known to be a business friendly state, which doesn’t always translate well to being an employee friendly state, with laws in place that cause quite a bit of red tape when it comes to receiving the worker's compensation benefits you need. Because of these laws, it’s more important than ever to contact a skilled Florida personal injury or workers compensation attorney when facing recovery from an injury sustained at work. There are some difficulties often experienced by Florida workers after they’ve been injured and are seeking workers compensation benefits. 5 of these difficulties are:
• Insurance providers choose your medical professional – If you’ve been injured at work and your injury requires a doctor’s care, this doctor will be chosen out of a list vetted and approved by your job’s worker’s compensation insurance provider. This means that you may not be able to be seen by your regular health care provider, or the health care provider of your choosing. The diagnosis and care provided by this doctor will be critical to the compensation you’re able to receive and will serve as a foundation for your claim or your case.
These doctors chosen are often those that are more business friendly than employee friendly, and may push to “approve” you to go back to work before you’re actually ready. A workers compensation attorney by your side can help to protect you from practices that may work against you.
• The law limits the amount of time you can receive compensation – The workers compensation system in Florida is designed to get workers back to work as quickly as possible. Once a healthcare provider provides the okay to get back to work, the workers compensation insurance provider no longer has to provide checks, limiting the time compensation may be received if a person feels as though the doctor overseeing their injury has been hasty in their perceived recovery.
• Lack of job protection – In the state of Florida, employers do not have to guarantee a person their job back once they recover from their work-related injury. This means that suffering a work-related injury that requires prolonged time from work may result in job loss.
• Disability is difficult to prove – In the state of Florida, insurance providers work to limit liability and payouts, and to do so they may deny benefits to workers who are able to perform any job, not just their job. If there is any other job a person can physically perform, even if that job requires a large pay cut or if the injured worker is not trained for it, workers compensation claims may be denied. Proving disability and an inability to perform any job while recovering from an injury can be, and often is, difficult.
• Insurance companies work against you – It’s important to remember that insurance companies work first for their bottom line, and in doing so try to make payouts as complicated as possible. Because insurance companies will be working against you, it’s imperative injured workers have a worker’s compensation attorney in their corner as quickly as possible to guide them through the process and ensure their fair treatment.
If you’ve been injured in a workplace accident in Florida, filing a workers compensation claim should be your first step. Filing a claim does not mean you’re always taken care of, and following up that claim with a call to a skilled Florida attorney will ensure you the best outcome possible. To learn more about what a workers compensation attorney can do for you, contact us at AllInjuriesLawFirm.com today.