Getting Treatment For a Milford Workplace Injury

When you face a Milford workplace injury, one of your first considerations is to get immediate medical treatment for your injury. You will want to receive all necessary medical care to repair your injury and to help you return to work safely without aggravating your condition or re-injuring yourself. Sometimes, your workplace injuries will heal quickly. Other times, your injuries will not. The specifics of your Milford workplace injury will determine whether you can return to work right away, if you need an extended leave in order to recover, or if you face life-lasting disabilities and cannot return to your prior job at all. In each instance, the extent of your medical treatment will be different.

Getting Started With Treatment

If your workers’ compensation case is accepted by your employer, your medical bills will be directly paid by the workers’ compensation insurance. You should have your bills sent directly from your doctor to your employer’s insurance carrier, and they will take care of the financial aspect of your injuries.

It is your right to obtain a copy of your medical records. You are also entitled to have your prescription medications paid for through workers’ compensation. You can get reimbursement for any expenses related to your illness or injury. Additionally, you can receive wage replacement benefits for the time spent receiving medical treatment. You should not lose paid time from work because you have a doctor’s appointment.

If injured in a workplace accident in Milford, your employer decides on the facility and doctor for your initial medical treatment. You must go to this care provider first. After your initial treatment, you can select the doctor that you want to work with for the remainder of your case.

Working With a Doctor

For a lot of people, working with a new doctor can be stressful. It’s completely understandable to feel this way. You simply won’t have the same degree of trust and comfort as you do with your primary care physician because you do not have experience with them. If appropriate for your workplace injury, you can use your primary care physician as your attending physician after seeing your employer’s doctor. Many of our Milford clients have long-term relationships with their own primary care physicians. It makes sense that they would obtain treatment for their workplace injury from their primary care physician.

Of course, depending upon the severity of your workplace injury, you might require treatment from a specialist. If the nature of your injury mandates that you treat with a specialist, it might not be appropriate for your primary care doctor to handle your case. If you refuse to work with a specialist, you could jeopardize your ability to receive additional workers’ compensation benefits.

It is important that you receive all your medical treatment from physicians that are approved by the workers’ compensation system. If you obtain treatment from a doctor or other care provider that is not approved, your treatment will not be accepted by your employer, and you will not receive compensation. Worse, you could jeopardize your eligibility for additional benefits. Ensure that your medical treatment is fully approved.

You have the right to change your attending physician if you so desire. You can change your attending doctor in a few ways. First, you can get a referral from your attending to another physician and/or a specialist. Second, you can get approval to switch treating doctors. This is acheived through your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier. Third, you can get a recommendation from an Administrative Law Judge. You will need to provide specific reasons why you need a new doctor, and you should be able to specify the new doctor that you want. Make sure that a change in doctors is approved before making the switch.

The Respondent’s Medical Examination

Many of our injured Milford clients are requested to submit to an examination by the employer’s selected physician. They have the right to do this. Your employer can request that you submit to an examination known as a Respondent’s Medical Examination, or “RME.” Even in an otherwise accepted claim, your employer can challenge your need for further medical treatment, your need for surgery, your need to remain out of work, or the extent of your claimed permanent injury. The employer makes this challenge through the RME process.

You have some protections when you undergo an RME. The request must be reasonable. Excessive travel is not required. Conflicts of interest are not permitted. If there is excessive travel or a verified conflict of interest, the employer will need to select a different examiner. Furthermore, the written report of the RME physician must be provided to both employee and employer within 30 days.

If you suffer a workplace injury in Milford, you have the right to receive all necessary medical care and treatment, and this could be paid for by your employer. If and you have questions about your medical treatment for a workers’ compensation claim, please contact our team. We are here to help you through this difficult time.