Helping Injured Workers Receive Fair Compensation

The state’s Workers’ Compensation system pays specific financial benefits to eligible employees. These include:

• Medical Treatments: Workers’ compensation pays for all expenses associated with medical treatment and care for qualifying work-related injuries and illnesses. This includes initial medical evaluations, diagnostic testing, surgery, rehabilitation, medications, and medical equipment. It also includes the cost of traveling to and from medical appointments. You can be reimbursed for travel costs at the current federal mileage rate.
• Temporary Disability: Temporary disability benefits compensate injured workers while they are unable to return to work due to a work-related injury or illness. Temporary disability benefits equal two-thirds the worker’s average weekly wage up to state-set limits. Typically, temporary disability benefits are capped at 104 weeks or 240 weeks, depending on the type of injury suffered.
• Permanent Disability: Permanent disability benefits are available to workers who suffer partial or total disability due to a work-related injury or illness. To qualify, you must prove that your injury prevents you from returning to work at full capacity from a diagnosis from the American Medical Association guidelines. Permanent disability benefits are based on the worker’s disability rating, which is assigned by the treating physician at the point of “maximum medical improvement” (MMI).

• Life Pension: Workers who receive an impairment rating of 70 – 99% may be eligible for life pension payments. This is an additional payment provided on top of permanent disability benefits that is available for the remainder of the injured worker’s life. Life pension payments are rare, and you must be able to prove that you have suffered a severe, life-altering, or debilitating injury to be eligible.
• Vocational Retraining: Also known as the Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit, vocational retraining benefits are available to workers who cannot return to their previous employment due to a work-related injury or illness and whose employers do not offer modified or light-duty work. Vocational retraining benefits are paid in the form of a $6,000 voucher for educational courses and training at certain schools approved by the state.
• Death Benefits: When a worker dies due to a job-related injury or illness, eligible surviving family members (spouses and dependents) can recover death benefits through the Workers’ Compensation system. These benefits include burial and funeral expenses up to a specified amount and compensation for lost income.

To learn more about Workers’ Compensation benefits and what payments you may be entitled to receive, contact our Glendale Workers’ Compensation attorneys today and set up a free, no-obligation consuFltation.