If you’ve suffered an injury at work, you may be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits to cover your medical care and pay you a portion of your missing income. However, Connecticut law places certain limits on how long you can collect workers’ comp benefits. As a general rule, the system provides coverage as long as your doctor keeps you totally off work. If you are never able to return to work, you could continue to receive benefits until you retire.
An experienced workers’ compensation lawyer from Jainchill & Beckert, LLC, can seek the maximum benefits available to you under Connecticut law.
What Factors Can Determine the Length of Your Workers’ Compensation Benefits?
Various factors may affect how long you receive workers’ compensation benefits after a work-related injury. These factors include:
- The nature and severity of your injury
- The duration of your medical treatment (specifically, how long until you reach maximum medical improvement, the point at which further treatment will not meaningfully improve your condition)
- How long it takes you to return to work, even in a limited capacity
- Whether you return to work in a limited, lower-paying capacity
- Whether you suffer permanent disabilities that render you unable to return to work
What Is the Timeline of a Workers’ Comp Claim?
Although the timeline of a workers’ compensation claim can vary from person to person, a typical workers’ comp case will involve the following steps:
- Employee Sustains a Work Injury – After an employee gets hurt, they must report the injury to their employer promptly. The employer must provide initial medical treatment with a physician of the employer’s choice and file a First Report of Injury form with the Connecticut Workers’ Compensation Commission. If the employee disputes the employer’s provision (or denial) of benefits, they can file a Notice of Claim for Compensation with the Commission.
- Physician Determines an Employee’s Capacity to Work – After initial treatment, the employee can choose an attending physician to determine whether the injury prevents them from performing some or all their job duties. The employer must provide a wage statement to its workers’ compensation insurer to provide temporary disability payments.
- Employee Receives Medical Treatment – The employee must continue to accept physician-recommended medical treatment. The employer pays weekly disability benefits and covers medical bills.
- Employee Becomes Capable of Restricted Work – If the employee’s condition improves enough to handle light-duty work, the employer may offer a restricted-duty position and pay partial disability benefits.
- Employee Reaches Maximum Medical Improvement – If an employee reaches maximum medical improvement but has experienced permanent partial impairment, they may negotiate with the insurance company to seek permanent partial disability benefits. The physician must examine the employee and issue a disability evaluation to help the insurer determine the nature and severity of the employee’s impairments.
- Employee Exhausts Permanent Partial Disability Benefits – Once the employee’s permanent partial disability benefits expire, they can request a hearing with the Commission. This hearing will determine the employee’s right to additional discretionary benefits if they cannot return to work or statutory benefits for scarring or disfigurement.
How Are Your Benefits Affected If You Are in Vocational Rehabilitation for Your Work Injury?
You may have the right to receive vocational rehabilitation benefits while on workers’ compensation if you suffer prolonged or permanent impairments that restrict your ability to work in your current job.
Vocational rehabilitation can provide workers with job training and career counseling services to place them in another job within their physical capacity. These services can help put injured workers back to work in a job that pays as much or more than they earned prior to their injury. These increased earnings may result in the suspension of disability benefits. Contact our Hartford workers compensation lawyer today.
What Are the Different Types of Workers’ Compensation Benefits in CT?
Connecticut’s workers’ compensation system offers various financial benefits for employees who suffer from work-related injury or illness. The type of compensation you may receive depends on the nature and severity of your injury or illness. Available workers’ comp benefits in Connecticut include:
- Medical Treatment Benefits – These benefits cover the cost of reasonable and necessary medical treatment for a work injury or occupational illness. The employer can designate a medical facility for initial treatment, but the employee may choose an attending physician afterward. However, the employee may have to choose from a list of doctors in an employer’s approved medical care plan.
- Temporary Total Disability Benefits – These are wage replacement benefits that partially replace a worker’s lost wages for any days they cannot work at all due to work-related injury or illness.
- Temporary Partial Disability Benefits – These benefits partially reimburse workers for the difference between their pre-injury wages and lower earnings they receive while on modified duty.
- Permanent Partial Disability Benefits – These benefits provide financial payments based on the nature and severity of a permanent partial impairment. A permanent partial impairment is a physical impairment that affects a person’s ability to complete certain activities but does not render them completely unable to work.
- Relapse or Recurrence Benefits – These provide financial compensation to workers who suffer a relapse or recurrence of a prior work injury or occupational illness.
- Discretionary Benefits – These are optional benefits awarded at the discretion of an administrative law judge to a worker who has exhausted their permanent partial disability benefits.
- Job Retraining – These benefits offer vocational rehabilitation services to injured or ill workers who cannot return to their current jobs but can perform other kinds of work with additional training or education.
Is There a Time Limit for Filing a Connecticut Workers’ Comp Claim?
Connecticut’s workers’ compensation system requires workers to promptly notify their employers of a work injury or occupational illness. However, a worker can satisfy their statutory notice requirements by filing a Form 30C within one year of the injury date or within three years of the first manifestation of symptoms of an occupational disease. Although workers may have up to three years to file their workers’ comp claim, they should notify their employer of their claim as soon as possible to avoid jeopardizing their right to benefits.
Contact a Connecticut Workers’ Compensation Lawyer
If you are injured at work, your employer may have an obligation to provide you with workers’ compensation benefits. Contact Jainchill & Beckert, LLC, today for a free, no-obligation consultation with a Connecticut workers’ compensation attorney. We’ll help you learn more about your rights to collect workers’ comp in CT and how long you could be eligible to receive benefits.
