Your employer must pay all reasonable and related medical expenses
When you have an injury that is covered under Illinois Workers' Compensation Law, your employer must pay for all medical treatment that is reasonable and related to your medical condition. Well, what does that mean?
Reasonable: This means that it is prescribed by a doctor and is medically accepted by most doctors to be a treatment that makes sense. In other words, if you hurt your neck and buy yourself a pillow because it helps you sleep at night, we likely can't get the insurance company to pay for it. On the other hand, if your doctor says that you need that pillow and writes a prescription for it then we can get you reimbursed. We have secured gym memberships for our clients as well when their doctors felt working out would promote a recovery.
Related: It has to be related to your work injury. You may hurt your back at work and herniate a disc. The doctor you see for that injury may also be giving you medical treatment for a knee injury from playing basketball or some other reason. Some of these doctors carelessly bundle their bills and don't distinguish what is related to the work injury and what isn't. We can only get bills that are part of the reasonable work injury treatment paid.
When your medical treatment is reasonable and related to your injury we usually get 100% of the bills paid with no co-pays or out of pocket expenses for our client.
If you have paid for anything out of pocket make sure to keep receipts. We will do whatever we can to get you reimbursed ASAP.
We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys. Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.
I've recently had a shoulder surgery and am taking prescriptions (hydrocodone and Valium) for the pain. My employer has been able to find light work for me, but has restricted me from driving company vehicles, which I understand completely.
My problem is the insurance company wants me to drive my personal vehicle to work while under the influence of these prescriptions! I have about a 25 minute drive to work, which is in a rural area and not served by public transportation. I do not have a resonable way to get work except to walk (shuffle and stumble) 12 miles.
My physician (which requires about 30 days to get an appoint with him) isn't willing to take me back off work, and the workman's comp representative doesn't care how I get to work, as long as I get there. For what its worth my physical therapist is completely outraged, but I don't want to drag her into it and chance getting her into any trouble with the Physician's group.
There is nothing about this issue that sounds reasonable or intelligent to me. I sure don't want to get into an accident on the way to work because there isn't anyway I would be able to pass a blood test.
Are there any laws subject I can refer too.
Thanks,
Bryan Coulson