[VIDEO] Don’ts for Injured Workers: Don’t Wait to Report Your Injury

[VIDEO] Don’ts for Injured Workers: Don’t Wait to Report Your Injury

It’s quite simple. You’re denying yourself the availability of treatment. The longer you wait – the longer it is going to take for you to get better; for you to get back to work; and for you to provide the income for your family.

Earlier I indicated that you have thirty days to report your injury and that is true, but why wait thirty days? I understand there are certain times that you don’t appreciate perhaps how bad your back hurts, or that some injuries take time to appreciate to a level to where you feel like you need treatment. That’s why the law allows you thirty days.

However, the longer you wait to do so then you’re putting yourself in a position to where the insurance company could deny your claim – not because you haven’t provided the notice within thirty days – but because they just flat out don’t believe you. They might simply ask you, “Well, why did you wait so long if you’re in such excruciating pain.”. Don’t give the employer or the insurance company a reason to back out of providing you the treatment. Tell them what happened.

If you do wait after the thirty days then 99% of the time the insurance company will deny your claim because they don’t have to provide treatment after the thirty days. It gives them a way to back out of the treatment. There may be ways around that thirty day notice period and that’s what attorneys do to make sure that your claim gets accepted. But again, if you do not have to put yourself in a bad position then don’t do so.

The beginning of your claim is a very very important time frame. That’s why there are statutory time frames when you need to report your claim. So the faster you can do that and the faster we can get you the right treatment, the faster we can get your income benefits, with no interruption in the income that comes into your household and the faster we can just put you in a better position and you were at the time of the injury. So don’t wait. Report it. Ask for the incident report to be written up, and ask for treatment as soon as possible.