Injured at Work? We’ll Help You Get the Benefits You Deserve.
Securing workers’ compensation benefits after an injury is difficult. It’s even harder if your employer or their insurance company isn’t playing fair. GRL Law will fight on your behalf to help you win the benefits and medical care you deserve.
What Our Iowa Workers' Comp Lawyers Do for You
Handling Paperwork & Communication
We can help you file your claim and navigate through the necessary steps to secure your benefits.
Fighting for Medical Care
We’ll ensure you receive the ongoing medical care you need to recover from your injury.
Maximizing Benefits
Insurance companies often pay less than what is required. We’ll fight to secure all the financial benefits you deserve.
What to Do After a Work Injury in Iowa
When you’re injured at work, it can be disorienting and confusing. Here’s a quick guide to the steps you should take to protect your rights.
1. Notify Your Supervisor/Employer Immediately
Your employer needs to be notified of the injury within 90 days of the injury, or your claim may be barred.
2. Seek Medical Treatment
Your employer can often choose what medical care is provided and by whom. However, you are entitled to reasonable and necessary care. It’s important to attend all medical appointments and to be honest with the providers about pain and injuries.
3. Contact an Attorney Immediately
Don’t wait. A skilled attorney will review the benefits that have been paid to ensure that the insurer paid the correct amount and in a timely fashion.
Understanding the Types of Workers’ Compensation Benefits
If you have been injured or become ill due to your job, you may be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. Most injured workers are covered by workers’ compensation law, but certain classes — like agricultural workers, domestic workers, and independent contractors — may not be covered. Members in these classes may be able to sue their employer in civil court.
Workers’ compensation benefits include:
• Medical benefits
• Reimbursement for mileage to doctor appointments
• Lost wages while off the job
• Disability benefits
• Death benefits
• “Second injury” benefits
Here’s a closer look at these different types of benefits.
Medical Benefits & Reimbursement
Your employer must pay for reasonable and necessary medical care to treat a qualifying injury. If the employer is accepting liability and they are paying for the medical bills, they get to choose the medical provider.
Injured workers are also entitled to have their mileage expenses reimbursed for traveling to and from doctors’ appointments. The mileage reimbursement rate for workers’ compensation is the same as that allowed by the IRS for business travel. It is best practice for injured workers to keep a log of the mileage for each doctor’s appointment.
Lost Wages & Disability
When you miss work due to injury, your weekly benefit rate is generally 80% of your after-tax average weekly wage. Weekly compensation benefits have a fixed minimum and maximum that are available, and those numbers are adjusted from year to year.
Types of disability benefits include:
Temporary Total Disability
If an injured employee is off work for more than three calendar days, temporary total disability benefits may be available beginning on the fourth day. Benefits continue until the employee returns to work or is medically capable of returning to similar employment, whichever occurs first. If the disability period exceeds fourteen calendar days, the employee is entitled to be paid for the three-day waiting period.
Temporary Partial Disability
If an injured employee returns to work at a lesser-paying job due to the injury, the employee may be entitled to temporary partial disability benefits. The value of the benefits is two-thirds of the difference between the employee’s average gross weekly earnings at the time of the injury and the actual earnings while working at the lesser-paying job. The three-day waiting period also applies to temporary partial disability benefits.
Healing Period
When an employee has an injury that results in permanent impairment, the employee may be entitled to healing period benefits during the period of recuperation. Healing period benefits begin on the first day the employee is off work until one of these three occurs:
• The employee returns to work.
• It is medically indicated that significant improvement from the injury is not anticipated.
• The employee is medically capable of returning to substantially similar employment to that engaged in at the time of injury.
Permanent Partial Disability
If an injury results in permanent disability, the employee may be entitled to permanent partial disability benefits based on the degree of permanent disability. Permanent partial disability benefits are payable in addition to healing period benefits and commence at the termination of the healing period.
Permanent Total Disability
When an employee is injured to the extent they are incapable of returning to gainful employment, they may be entitled to permanent total disability benefits, which are payable for life at the same weekly rate as permanent partial disability benefits.
Death Benefits
In the tragic event that an injured worker dies, their surviving spouse receives weekly benefits for the remainder of their life, unless they remarry. If the surviving spouse remarries, they receive a lump sum of two years of benefits if there are no surviving children entitled to benefits. Surviving children may receive benefits until the age of 18, or until age 25 if they are a student.
The Second Injury Fund
If a worker has suffered two scheduled injuries to separate body parts from separate incidents, they may be entitled to Second Injury Fund (SIF) benefits. Basically, the idea behind the SIF is that compensation for two separate scheduled injuries may not adequately compensate a worker for the resulting loss of earning capacity from the two injuries. The employer pays the scheduled benefits, and the Second Injury Fund pays any extra industrial disability created by the two injuries.
Only the second injury needs to be work-related. The first injury could have been sustained by any cause. Both injuries must be to scheduled members (i.e., arm, leg, hand, foot, etc.) and cannot be a body as a whole injury.
Frequently Asked Questions About Workers’ Compensation
How Do I Know if My Injury Is Covered by Workers’ Compensation?
To prove that you are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits, a worker must prove:
- You were an employee at the time of the injury, and
- Your injury was suffered “arising out of” and “in the course of” employment.
There are nuances to proving both of these. Depending on the nature of your work, your employer may argue that you were an “independent contractor” at the time of the injury or that your injury was not a result of your work for them. GRL Law will help you sort through how to prove that you are eligible for the benefits you deserve.
What Are the Deadlines for My Claim?
Filing a claim as soon as possible is important to winning benefits. Failing to do so could impact your eligibility for benefits.
There are three deadlines you should be aware of.
90-Day Notice Requirement
An injured worker is required to give notice to their employer of the injury within 90 days of the injury. If the employer has firsthand knowledge of the injury, that is sufficient. No particular form of notice is required by law; however, best practice is to notify the employer in writing.
Two-Year Statute of Limitations
If you haven’t received any weekly benefits yet, you will have two years from the date of the injury to file a workers’ compensation claim. Medical benefits don’t count as weekly benefits.
The two-year statute of limitations does not begin until you:
- Know of the injury.
- Are aware of its probable, compensable nature.
The “cumulative injury rule” can also extend the two-year statute of limitations. The “cumulative injury rule” applies to injuries that develop over the course of time, such as carpal tunnel. The date of the injury is when the cumulative injury manifests itself — when the injury and causal relationship of the injury to the claimant’s employment would be plainly apparent to a reasonable person.
Three-Year Statute of Limitations
If weekly benefits have been paid to the injured worker, the worker has three years from the date of the last payment to file a claim. The operative date is the date the payment was issued, not the date it was received.
How Is Medical Treatment Handled Under Workers’ Compensation?
If the employer is paying for the medical bills, the employer gets to choose the doctor. Subject to an exception, if the injured worker seeks treatment from an “unauthorized” doctor, the employer is not required to pay the bill.
If the injured worker is not satisfied with the medical care provided by the employer’s chosen doctor, the injured worker can petition the Workers’ Compensation Commissioner’s Office for alternate medical care. The injured worker must show at a hearing that the employer-provided care is unreasonable. This usually consists of a medical opinion from another provider.
Alternate care can also be sought in these situations:
- When the treating doctor has no further care to offer, yet the injured worker is still experiencing symptoms.
- When an employer refuses to authorize a referral for testing or to a specialist.
- If the claimant is unduly inconvenienced by being made to travel for care when suitable care is available locally.
An injured worker is entitled to an independent medical evaluation (IME) at the employer’s expense. If an authorized treating doctor has provided a permanency rating, and the claimant believes the rating is too low or incomplete in some manner, the injured worker can get their own permanency evaluation done. This is a one-time, second opinion from a doctor of the injured worker’s choice, regarding the permanency of the injury.
An IME is not available at the cost of the employer if they are denying liability.
What if My Weekly Benefits Are Denied or Delayed?
Penalty Benefits
If the employer or insurance carrier denies, delays, or terminates weekly benefits without reasonable cause or excuse, penalty benefits may be awarded. Penalty benefits may be up to 50% of the weekly benefits that were improperly denied, delayed, or terminated.
To be considered reasonable cause or excuse, the employer shall satisfy all of the following criteria:
- The excuse was preceded by a reasonable investigation and evaluation by the employer or insurance carrier into whether benefits were owed to the employee.
- The results of the reasonable investigation and evaluation were the actual basis upon which the employer or insurance carrier relied to deny, delay, or terminate benefits.
- The employer or insurance carrier contemporaneously conveyed the basis for the denial, delay, or termination of benefits to the employee at the time of the denial, delay, or termination of benefits.
Penalty benefits DO NOT apply to unpaid or delayed medical benefits.
Interest
Interest is due on delayed or unpaid benefits regardless of whether the delay was unreasonable. Interest is due on unpaid or delayed benefits regardless of the reason.
Advice for Claimants
If weekly benefit checks are being sent directly to the claimant, he/she should copy both the check and the envelope it was sent in and save them. Additionally, claimants should document in a spreadsheet:
The dates the weekly benefit check was intended to cover
- The amount of the check
- The date the check was cut
- The date the check was mailed
- The date the check was received
- The date the check was due
This spreadsheet, along with the copies of checks and envelopes, should be turned over to your attorney.
Anytime a client has their benefit checks sent to our office, we document all this, and more, for them before we issue the check to the client.
