The best thing about Illinois workers comp law, in my opinion, is that you don’t need to have insurance in order to get medical care. If your employer has work comp insurance, that insurance is essentially your health care for any work related injury. Better yet, it pays for everything. Meaning 100%. Meaning no co-pays or out of pocket costs to you.
As long as the care is reasonable (e.g. not experimental) and related to your accident, it should be covered. That means if you tear your ACL, they should pay for your knee surgery at a doctor of your choosing. And if after surgery using crutches causes an elbow injury, they should pay for that too. It’s all reasonable and related. But if you are pregnant or have cancer or slam your hand in your car door, that treatment is on you.
It’s really the best part of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act, but unfortunately not everyone knows about it. Your employer is supposed to post signs that advise you of your rights under Illinois law. Those signs make clear that you don’t need medical insurance. Unfortunately some employers break the law and don’t post these signs and others do, but not in an obvious place. And some workers don’t read them which can happen especially if you work in the field versus the same place every day.
As a result, I get a lot of phone calls from injured workers who were hurt on the job, but delay getting medical care because they have no way to pay for it since they have no insurance.
Some delay by a few days before learning the law. That’s not a huge worry for the case as once they learn the law they get into a doctor right away. Others will self medicate for weeks or months because they don’t want to get a big medical bill. Unfortunately often when they do learn the actual law it’s either too late or has at least created a big issue in their case. The longer you go without seeing a doctor, the harder it is to prove your problem is related to a work accident.
If it’s a repetitive trauma situation like a back injury from continuous heavy lifting, the delay might not matter a ton. On the other hand, if you were physically attacked or hit by a forklift or have some other one time accident, the longer you go without seeing a doctor, the harder it is to prove there’s actually a work related injury. There’s no specific delay that bars you from having a case, but generally speaking more than a month will create a problem.
I encourage everyone to make sure that there co-workers are aware of this law. Even some union members we meet and help aren’t aware of it which is a bit shocking to me. Not having health insurance doesn’t mean a thing when it comes to work related injuries. Get to the doctor and know that if you have a legitimate case your company’s insurance will have to cover all of it.
