I work at a job where I am using a computer keyboard all day long. Over the past few months, my right wrist started to hurt and get numb at times. I reported my injury on November 28, 2006 to the Human Resources Manager requesting for a keyboard tray from desk.
The HR Manager told me that it was out of his hands and that I should order a tray through my manager for approval. I asked on several occasions for the tray and my injury started to become more aggravated, so I went to his boss asking him about the status of a computer tray. He told me that the tray was too expensive and I now needed a doctors note in order for me to receive a keyboard tray.
I went to my doctor and told him the same story and he suggested that I file a workmen’s comp claim since it was a work related injury. It was filed the first week of February with the correct injury date of November 28th I am scheduled for surgery this Wednesday February 28th and they are now just informing me that I have to use my PTO to compensate my time off. Now, by law if I use the 21 days from the injury date (which it has been) shouldn’t I receive full compensation?
–Alyce
Jodi Ginsberg responds: Alyce, thanks for your question. The law requires that you file your workers compensation claim within 30 days of the injury. Here it looks like your date of injury was November 28, but you did not file your claim until the first of February. Is your employer acknowledging that you “reported” your injury in November?
For the benefit of anyone reading this blog, employers and insurance companies use these “reporting deficiencies” all the time to deny claims. If you get hurt on the job, you should always try to report the claim in writing and, if possible, file a report of on-the-job injury yourself with the State Board of Workers’ Compensation.
Assuming that your employer recognizes this as a workers comp injury, you ask about the 21 day rule. The 21 days runs not necessarily from date you reported it,but rather, from date of economic disability (when you stopped working). Did you continue working after the November, 2006 “injury date?”
By the way, if your injury did not “happen” on a specific day but was the result of months or years of overuse, then the injury date you choose is called a “fictitious injury date.” In cases involving these types of “overuse” injury, it is even more important for the injured claimant to file his own Form 14 notice on injury with the State Board.
Filed under Carpel Tunnel, Case studies, Georgia Workers' Compensation by 
As I have written in this blog and on my Georgia workers’ compensation web site, the quality and nature of your medical care following your injury will have a lot to do with whether you win your claim and with how much money you can expect at settlement.
I spend a good part of my day looking at my clients’ medical records and talking to my clients about the treatment they recieve. It is not at all uncommon for the physician chosen by the employer or its insurance company to release my client back to work with limited or no restrictions, when in reality my client is unable to perform his regular job, a "light duty" job, or any job at all.
Unfortunately, the quality and effectiveness of the medical care that you receive in your workers’ compensation case depend in large part upon who has selected the doctor. Many doctors work at medical clinics that get most of their patients from insurance companies for workers’ compensation treatment. Insurance company adjustors frequently speak with these doctors and encourage them to release claimants back to work, and to release them with limited or no restrictions.
If I take on a new case and I see that the insurance company has directed my new client to certain doctors, you can be sure that my first course of action will be to call the adjustor and argue for a more neutral physician. The law also gives us the right to demand an "independent" exam in certain circumstances and we also have the right to ask the State Board to designate a change in treating physician.
Sometimes insurance adjustors or defense lawyers will agree to a change in treating physician if I challenge their choice of a doctor who is known to be firmly in the insurance company’s camp. In fact, I would say that knowing the reputation of many of the doctors that you are likely to see in a Georgia workers’ comp case has helped me become a more effective advocate for my clients.
In a workers’ compensation setting, you cannot assume that a doctor recommended to you by your employer or its insurer will have your best interests at heart. Although most of us are conditioned to trust and respect physicians, you have to trust your gut if you find yourself in a workers’ compensation setting. And if your gut tells you that your current doctor does not have your best interests at heart, you and your lawyer need to take immediate action to regain control of your medical treatment.
[tags] medical treatment under workers compensation, Georgia workers compensation, company doctor, medical benefits [/tags]
Filed under Medical benefits by
The term "malingering" can cause you a great deal of problems if it appears in your medical records. If a judge believes that you are a malingerer, he will likely disregard much of your testimony and he will have an unfavorable attitude about you and your case. Malingering suggests lying and judges rarely award benefits to claimants who appear to be dishonest.
Physicians regularly employ a variety of tests to help identify a malingerer. Although these tests are not always accurate and can be rebutted, you are much better off doing everything in your power to avoid the malingering label in the first place.
Tests that physicians, psychologists and psychiatrists use to spot malingering usually fall into one or more of the following four categories:
- Effort tests – are your scores too low based on what prior tests have shown to be your capability?
- Pain scales – are you identifying pain in parts of your body inconsistent with diagnostic or clinical evidence?
- Symptom Endorsement – are you identifying too many symptoms, or symptoms inconsistent with your diagnosis?
- Waddell’s signs – physical actions that should not cause pain but elicit complaints. A classic Waddell test is the "distracted leg raise" where a patient has no complaints of knee pain when seated, but painful on straight leg raise.
As you might imagine, your physician will not necessarily tell you that you are being tested for malingering. Obviously, you should be completely honest and forthright with your physician – you want to create a physician-client relationship based on trust, not on trickery.
If you get the sense that your doctor has a bad attitude about you or is suggesting that you are being less than honest when you are telling the truth, report this situation to your lawyer at once.
[tags] malingering, workers compensation, workers comp, Waddell’s signs, symptom endorsement [/tags]
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