If your injury returns, so might your workers' compensation benefits.
After you’ve been injured in a work-related accident, you may receive temporary total disability benefits (TTD) to cover you while you’re off work healing. Once your recovery has gone as far as it can, then a decision can be made about the permanent nature of your injury.
Sometimes, though, an injury can flare up again and need more treatment. This could mean more medical costs and more lost time from work. Even though your case seemed like it was over and benefits had been set, the Illinois workers’ compensation system generally allows you to reopen the case to compensate you for the additional costs of healing from your injury.
Unless you’ve received one lump-sum payment to settle your case, you can go back to the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission and ask to have your case reviewed and TTD benefits restored. You would show that, though you once thought you were done healing from your injury and could return to work, your injury has become worse or flared up again and needs additional treatment and recovery time to help it to restabilize.
For example, one worker had a hand injury that had seemed to be done healing, and later needed more surgery and caused more missed work. He was able to request and receive additional benefits to cover the change in his situation.
Also, in a recent case, a worker had received an award of TTD benefits and permanent disability, when he thought that his injury had improved as much as it could. He was later able to show the Commission that in fact his injury had progressed further, and he was experiencing pain. The worker had sound medical proof that showed that he was not recovered, and his original condition had worsened. This medical evidence was enough to be awarded further payments.
Diagnosing injuries is not an exact science, and can’t always accurately predict the future of your condition, even though it may seem right at the time. For this reason it is very helpful that the system allows, in many instances, for a change in benefits that can reflect the change in your situation.
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.
