Illinois workers compensation lawyers advice- No one can make you have surgery
Under Illinois workers' compensation law not only must your employer provide you with all reasonable and related medical treatment, you also must cooperate with all reasonable medical treatment. A failure to do so could result in you having your benefits suspended or terminated.
For example, if your doctor suggests that you have physical therapy, you have to do it. It isn't invasive and can help you recover. If you repeatedly blow it off not only will you harm your health, but you will harm your case.
You also can't do what is called "injurious practices." In plain English that means that you can't do something that will make your health worse. For example, if you are a smoker, smoking is known to cause surgeries like a lumbar fusion to fail. If you keep smoking an Arbitrator might stop your benefits until you stop.
For a lot of workers, having a surgery is the only chance they have to get better. But no insurance company can make you have any surgery. We have had clients who have had recommendations for back surgery that just didn't want it because of the associated risks. Their doctors have said that with the surgery it is likely that they will make a complete recovery, but without it they can't work their normal job.
In that situation they don't have to have the surgery and the employer would have to keep paying them benefits.
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I was injured almost 5 years ago on my job. I stopped receiving ttd payments 6 months after injury, they stopped paying my medical expenses within a year. I have now decided that I am ready to settle. I am willing to release them from all medical responsiblities, my husband and I are having to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy because of my lack of income (my doctor only allows me to work 8 hours a week and I receive minimum wage $8 per hour). My lawyer does not seem to be in a hurry to move this along and I am about to become homeless. Can I negotiate my own deal with the work comp company and does my lawyer still get paid if I do the dealing myself? I am to the point that I am desparate and need this settlement now. I will have to have further treatment, but my private insurance company will pay for it just like they have for the past 4 years. What are my options?
Your attorney would have to withdraw from the case or be otherwise let go by the Judge. If not the insurance company can not negotiate directly with you. It sounds like you have had beyond awful representation.