Should You Work If The IME Doctor Says You Can?

We have over 25 years experience helping injured workers. If you would like a free, confidential consultation with a lawyer, call us any time at 888-705-1766.

One of the best pieces of advice for any injured worker in Illinois (or anywhere really) is to get a good treating doctor and listen to them. Usually with a work injury this means a good orthopedic doctor, but it could also be a neurologist or a pain doctor. You are looking for someone who specializes in the injury you are dealing with.

Unfortunately, what happens a lot in a workers compensation case is that you’ll have a great doctor who knows you well and has spent a lot of time with you. The insurance company will send you to an IME doctor for a one time exam. This is their right under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act. That doctor might spend five minutes with you and then write a report which completely contradicts what your doctor is saying.

So you may be faced with a situation where your great doctor says you can only do work with significant restrictions (e.g. 20 pound lifting restriction) and the hired gun insurance company doctor says you can work your normal job.

As a result, you may be faced with a situation where if you don’t put your health at risk, you’ll have no income coming in. How should you handle a situation like this?

As work comp attorneys, we can solve the problem, but it won’t be overnight. In most cases, an Arbitrator is going to favor the opinion of a reputable doctor who knows you well over an IME doctor who briefly saw you. But to get to that point, we will need to take the depositions of both doctors first. That can take a few months. Your lawyer can then file what is called a 19(b) petition for immediate hearing, but even then there’s no guarantee you’ll get to trial right away.

After the trial happens it can be weeks to many months before a decision is rendered. And if you win, the other side can appeal which usually means another year of delays.

Before a trial can happen we can have a pre-trial where we can discuss the evidence with the Arbitrator. They might lean on the insurance company to do the right thing or recommend an advance against any settlement which could put some money in your pocket. They might also do nothing. It depends on who the Arbitrator is and how strong the case facts are.

You can try to return to work based on what the IME says. If you make a good faith effort to do that, but can’t physically tolerate it, technically your TTD benefits are supposed to start again. That doesn’t always happen, but it varies case to case.

If your restrictions are permanent, you can look for a job within those restrictions while your lawyer gets the case ready for trial. If you do this and show that you are suffering a significant wage loss, you could end up receiving wage differential benefits. That would be 2/3 the difference of what you could make in the old job vs. what you can make now.

There is no right answer. It’s something you should discuss with your attorney. Your case facts and life circumstances should dictate your decision. What you shouldn’t do is consider settling until you are working a job comfortably for at least a few months. If you settle and then things get worse, you likely will be on your own at that point.