Has Your Work-Related Injury Reached A Plateau?

Short-term workers' comp allows workers time and benefits to get better after a work-related injury, and then return to their previous jobs. Not all injuries, however, follow those steps. If your injury is either more severe or is slow to heal, you may be looking at an entirely different set of circumstances. Read on to learn more about what it means to have a work-related injury that doesn't get better.

Maximum Medical Improvement

If you have experienced a catastrophic injury at work, you may already be at maximum medical improvement (MMI). This is a legal term used in workers' comp law to indicate that you may be at the maximum point of healing and that no further improvement is expected. If it's very clear to the workers' comp insurance carrier, through the details of your accident and the reports of medical professionals, that you have a more severe and permanent injury, you will be ruled to be at maximum medical improvement almost immediately after your accident.

For example, if your injury involved a spinal injury, an amputation, or a severe burn, there is very little likelihood of you recovering enough to go back to your same job.

In other cases, you may have had the type of injury that had the potential to improve enough for you to go back to work, but it never did. When your workers' comp doctor has not provided you with an okay to return to work after a certain amount of time has passed, you may be dealing with a permanent injury. You may be asked to undergo a special type of exam where a workers' comp doctor will make the final decision of maximum medical improvement.

For example, if you hurt your back in a fall on the factory floor, you may need several weeks of recovery, and you may eventually need surgery. When your back injury does not improve enough for you to work at your old job without pain, you may have reached maximum medical improvement.

What MMI Means to Your Workers' Comp Case

One thing you must know is that the ruling of MMI will not affect your ability to continue to get medical care. As long as you are injured, you can expect to have your medical expenses covered. At some point, you may also be eligible for other forms of benefits, such as Social Security disability and Medicaid or Medicare.

The weekly benefit amount that you've been receiving from the workers' comp carrier may change, however. You may be offered a lump sum settlement for your injury and that payment may be structured in several different ways. The services of a workers' comp attorney will be necessary to ensure that the settlement is the maximum amount you can get and is provided in a way that allows you to also collect Social Security payments. You may also consider looking for an attorney who specializes in your specific injury. For example, a work related vehicle accident attorney.