Your Rights for Medical Treatment

This blog post deals with the kind of medical treatment you can expect if you’ve been hurt on the job.  Georgia law says that if you’ve been hurt on the job, your employer and workers compensation insurer are required to give you medical care required and likely “to effect a cure, give relief, or restore the employee to suitable employment.”

However, there are strings attached!  Unless it’s a true emergency, you typically cannot simply pick any doctor for your medical care.  If your employer has a “panel of physicians” on the wall at work (often in the break room), you’re usually required to select a doctor off that panel.  If you don’t follow the rules on selecting a doctor, you may end up having to pay for your medical care yourself!

What if you don’t like the doctor that you’ve selected?  Are you required to keep going to that doctor?  Fortunately, the answer is probably not.

Georgia workers compensation law gives you the right to make one change from one doctor on the panel to another doctor on the panel.  In certain circumstances, if the employer or insurer has not followed the rules regarding your medical care, they may have lost control of the medical part of your claim, and you might be able to select a different doctor who is not even on the panel.

The best way to find out your rights to medical treatment and compensation under the workers compensation laws of Georgia is to speak with a lawyer.

I would be happy to meet with you in my office at no charge to you to discuss your workers compensation case and to discuss your legal rights and responsibilities.  This meeting also gives you the opportunity to get to know me and for me to get to know you and your precise legal problems. 

I've been practicing law in the metro Atlanta area since graduating from UGA Law School in 1986, and I've represented hundreds of injured men and women with their workers compensation cases during over 25 years of practicing law.

For more information, visit my website at www.gentrylawfirmgeorgia.com or call or email us for a free in-person consultation at 770-425-5573 or bill@gentrysmithlaw.com.

William C. (Bill) Gentry

Benefits Available

My next few blog posts will address the three types of benefits available to people who have suffered on-the-job injuries and have workers compensation claims.  These are (1) weekly checks while you’re out of work; (2) medical treatment to help you recover; and (3) a check based on any permanent disability you have as a result of your on-the-job injury.

Today’s post deals with (1) – weekly checks while you’re out of work.  As long as your doctor says that you are unable to work because of your injury, or your doctor released you to work with restrictions and your employer cannot return you to work within those restrictions, your employer and your workers compensation insurance company are obligated to pay you two-thirds of your average weekly wage, but this amount is capped at $500 per week.  This is called temporary total disability (TTD) benefits.

For example, if you were earning an average of $600 per week before you got hurt, you would be entitled to $400 per week from workers compensation benefits (2/3 of your average weekly wage before you got hurt).  Remember this is calculated on your “gross” wage (before taxes are taken out), NOT your take-home pay.

However, if you were earning $900 per week on average before you were hurt on the job, you would receive only $500 per week, rather than $600, because your weekly workers compensation check would be capped at $500 per week.

Georgia’s workers compensation law does not require your employer/workers compensation insurer to pay you for the first week you miss from work unless and until you’ve missed THREE (3) weeks of work.  In other words, at the end of the first week out of work, you do not receive a check.  At the end of the second week out of work, you receive a check for one week’s lost income, and at the end of the third week out of work, you receive a check for two week’s lost income.

If it sounds confusing, it can be, and you should contact a lawyer to discuss your claim as soon as possible.

I've been practicing law in the metro Atlanta area since graduating from UGA Law School in 1986, and I've represented hundreds of injured men and women with their workers compensation cases during over 25 years of practicing law.

For more information, visit my website at www.gentrylawfirmgeorgia.com or call or email us for a free in-person consultation at 770-425-5573 or bill@gentrysmithlaw.com.

William C. (Bill) Gentry

Welcome to my workers compensation law blog!  In it, I'm going to talk about legal problems facing people who have been hurt on the job.

What is workers compensation law?  It is a set of laws and a specialized court system that deal with people who have been hurt while working for someone else.

If you have been hurt on the job, you are probably eligible for three types of benefits through your employer and its workers compensation insurer:  (1) medical treatment for your injury; (2) weekly checks for as long as your doctor says you can’t return to your old job because of your injury; and (3) a permanent impairment rating that your doctor gives you if you are not expected to completely recover from your injury.

Like almost every area of the law, there are exceptions to every rule.  For example, if your employer doesn’t have 3 or more employees, your employer probably does not have to have workers compensation insurance.  Also, if you were under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of your injury, you may not be able to get workers compensation benefits.

If you are hurt on the job, important deadlines may affect your claim.  For example, generally, within 30 days of the date of your injury, you must tell your employer that you were hurt on the job and that you are seeking medical treatment for your injury.  Also, you must file a written notice of your claim with the State Board of Workers Compensation by the latest of three different dates:  one year from the date of your injury, one year after your last remedial medical treatment for your injury, or two years from the date of your last weekly check from the workers compensation insurer.

If it sounds confusing, it can be, and you should contact a lawyer to discuss your claim as soon as possible.

I've been practicing law in the metro Atlanta area since graduating from UGA Law School in 1986, and I've represented hundreds of injured men and women with their workers compensation cases during over 25 years of practicing law.

For more information, visit my website at www.gentrylawfirmgeorgia.com or call us for a free in-person consultation at 770-425-5573.

William C. (Bill) Gentry