Workers’ compensation insurance, often known as workman’s comp, pays benefits to employees who are injured or sick as a result of their job. It also covers disability benefits, wage replacement payments, and death benefits.
Workers’ compensation also limits your culpability for workplace injuries and illnesses. If you do not provide coverage, your employees may sue you for a work-related accident or illness to recover medical expenses or lost income.
Most states require employers to have workers’ compensation insurance. However, because each state has its own set of regulations, the state or states where you do business will decide your workers’ compensation insurance obligations.
What Does Workers’ Compensation Cover?
If your employee has a work-related injury or sickness, workers’ compensation benefits can help cover the following expenses:
- Medical costs
- Wages have been lost.
- Costs of ongoing care
- Funeral costs
These workers’ compensation payments are not accessible if your employee is injured or becomes ill outside of work. Benefits may also be denied for inebriated personnel who are involved in an accident or who willfully injure themselves.
Medical Bills
Workers’ compensation insurance pays for medical bills incurred as a result of a workplace injury or illness. This can involve visits to the emergency department, essential operations, and medicines. For example, if one of your electricians cuts their hand at a customer’s house, workers’ compensation insurance can assist cover the cost of their hospitalization.
Unpaid Wages
Workers’ compensation pays a portion of your employee’s lost wages if they need time off to recover from a work-related injury or sickness. So, if your restaurant chef spills a pot of boiling water on her arm and is unable to work for two weeks, workers’ compensation coverage may be able to compensate her for some of her missed pay.
Continued Care
Some work-related injuries or diseases are severe enough that they necessitate more than one therapy. For example, if a warehouse employee injures their back while lifting heavy boxes, workers’ compensation insurance can assist pay the costs of their continued care, such as physical therapy.
Funeral Fees
If your employee dies as a result of a work-related accident, workers’ compensation coverage can help cover funeral expenses and offer death benefits to your employee’s beneficiaries.
Illness
Working circumstances might sometimes expose your staff to dangerous chemicals or allergies, causing disease. If one of your employees becomes ill as a result of a work-related incident or condition, workers’ compensation insurance can assist pay the expenses of necessary treatment and ongoing care.
Repetitive Strain Injury
Work-related injuries are not always the result of a single stressful incidence. Repetitive injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, can develop over months or years. Workers’ compensation might assist cover treatment costs and ongoing care expenditures if your receptionist gets carpal tunnel syndrome after years of typing with bad ergonomics.
Disability
Some workplace injuries can be severe enough to disable your employee for an extended period or permanently. Workers’ compensation insurance such as stockton work lawyer can provide benefits to your disabled employees to assist pay their medical bills and restore part of their lost wages.
What Is the Procedure for Filing a Workers’ Compensation Claim?
Workers’ compensation claim procedures differ from one state to the next. However, regardless of where you are, it is critical to begin the claim procedure as soon as possible after a work-related illness or injury arises.
Most states have a time restriction for your employee to notify their boss of a workers’ compensation injury. This normally lasts between 30 and 90 days. There may also be a time limit for reporting a workers’ compensation injury to an employer’s insurance carrier. You must understand how your state’s claims procedure works and whether there are any statutes of limitations for coverage.