Medical Benefits: Choosing a Doctor
Following a workplace injury, getting the medical care that you need will be crucial to your recovery and to preventing further health complications from possibly arising. In order to get this process started, the first step is for the injured worker to officially report the injury to the employer. Next, the employer may provide the injured worker with two options for doctors to see.
While injured workers can seek treatment from their own physician if their employer does not provide them with options for
doctors, in most cases, the employees will be forced to choose from the employer-provided options, as employers will typically want injured workers to see doctors with whom they have a relationship.
Once an injured worker selects a doctor:
- He will have to see this physician for all subsequent medical treatment related to his workplace injury.
- He will only be able to switch doctors once, and this switch has to occur within 45 days of date on which the injury occurred.
When Your Medical Benefits May Be Shortchanged
Just because an injured worker selects an employer-approved doctor does not mean that the employee will receive the medical treatments he needs. In fact:
- Doctors may make recommendations that favor insurers and employers – Because employer-provided physicians have long-standing relationships with the employer and are being paid by the employer, they are very likely to recommend treatment options that save the employer money even though they are not necessarily the best course of treatment for the injured individual. Additionally, doctors may also put insurers’ and employers’ interests before the wellbeing of patients by:
- Assigning injured workers inappropriate disability ratings (that attempt to marginalize the extent of the injuries)
- Clearing injured workers to return to work before they may actually be physically (or mentally) ready to do so
- Assessing that an injured worker’s maximum medical improvement has been reached when it has not.
- Insurers may dispute recommended treatment plans – All recommended treatment plans have to first be approved by the insurer, and oftentimes, insurance companies find reasons to try to deny such plans in favor of less expensive options (as insurers are usually looking out for their clients – the employers).
Denver Workers’ Compensation Lawyers at the Bisset Law Firm
Have you sustained a workplace injury? If so, you will need an experienced lawyer on your side to ensure that you are receiving the quality medical benefits you need to recover. At the Bisset Law Firm, our skilled Denver workers’ compensation attorneys have decades of experience aggressively defending injured workers’ rights and helping them obtain the benefits they deserve.
Our primary goal is to provide each of our clients with the highest quality legal representation in order to help them secure the maximum possible benefits for their workplace injuries. Some of the ways that our experienced legal professionals do this include by:
- Giving our clients upfront, honest answers regarding the strengths and weaknesses associated with their cases
- Providing our clients with clear explanations of their choices for moving forward and their best options when it comes to accepting a settlement or litigating their case in trial
- Keeping each of our clients informed about every development in their case
- Meeting all of our clients’ case deadlines
- Working diligently to keep our clients’ cases moving forward towards resolution
- Helping our clients obtain the best possible results from their cases.
While we offer knowledgeable, superior counsel to anyone seriously injured on the job, some of our additional key strengths include our fierce negotiating skills, our extensive trial experience and our readiness to take decisive action when the denial or delay of a workers’ compensation claim is finally overruled.
Let’s Talk – Contact Us Today
Contact the Denver workers’ compensation lawyers at the Bisset Law Firm by calling (303) 894-8900 to learn more about your rights and receive a professional evaluation of your case.
