Workers Compensation Benefits
Workplace Injuries: How Are Workers Compensation Benefits Handled and Given Out
Any workers’ compensation claims are typically looked at as a no-fault system, meaning employees are permitted to receive benefits whether or not they were at fault for causing their workplace injury. However, workers’ compensation will not cover persons if the injuries were sustained through one or more of the following things:
- Abuse
- Criminal activity
- Intoxication
- Substance abuse
- Other types of gross/willful misconduct
Even in some of these circumstances, if it’s found that an employer is even somewhat liable for the injury that occurs, workers’ compensation benefits may still cover the injury…depending on the state you live in.
Any one of the following elements is needed to set forth the basic legal boundary for injuries that are covered by the workers’ compensation benefits:
1 – Injury took place in a work-related environment; this includes
off-site work, travel to off-site employment locations, serious future
injuries and injuries sustained during picnics.
2 – Injury is a result of immediate single event or through repeated actions.
3 – Progressively emotional damage the employment caused
4 – Any injury that occurs directly during the course of employment.
Workers’ Compensation Benefits and Illnesses: Are They Covered?
Work-related illnesses, also known as occupational illnesses, happen
the instant the employment increases the possibility of the working
getting the illness. Before workers’ compensation benefits are approved
for illnesses, a direct link must be established that the employment
caused the disease.
Bear in mind that insurance companies that
cover employers will look into areas of your life, which includes your
past and medical history. This is especially true of items that could
have been attributed to the illness you are making a claim for workers’ compensation benefits for.
Illness and disease definitions are changing to cover various aspects
of a person’s health. For example: should an illness cause an employee
to stop working and it’s deemed work-related, then workers’
compensation laws will cover them. Several states recognize
psychosomatic symptoms, mental disorders and work-related stress as a
work-related illness, compensating workers when deemed necessary.
Workers’ Compensation Benefits and Deaths: Are They Covered?
Workplace deaths occur more often than people would like to admit. It’s difficult to estimate the workers’ compensation value when a death has occurred because of a work-related issue. Any compensation awarded is given to the spouse, dependents or the deceased person’s estate owner to recompense for the loved one’s death, whether it was related to a work-related injury, illness or in cases where the cause of death is not known but they’re found at work. Should evidence show that the worker died by his/her own hand or a homicide not related to work, benefits are often withheld but it must be proven beyond a shadow of doubt.