Ty Wilson Law Podcast

Hello, Ty Wilson here. Georgia Workers Compensation Lawyer practicing law in the state of Georgia. And our video topic for today is about a combination claim. And what I mean by that is someone was working and driving as part of their job. And was involved in a motor vehicle collision or an auto accident. And so the question is, “Why would I want workers compensation to pay for my medical treatment?” 

Well when you have two separate claims in workers compensation, the employer / insurer is responsible for the medical care as it relates to the injuries that were created in the work accident. And so they will be paying for the care out of their pocket. Now in order to do that, they have to authorize the care and they have a great deal of control depending upon specific facts in your claim. 

Whereas in a personal injury matter you are obtaining the care on your own but then you're also responsible for paying for the medical care that you obtained. And seeking reimbursement towards the end of the claim or if you have to file suit. And so they're two entirely different claims. However, workers compensation will pay for the medical care so long as it is related to the work accident. 

For more details on that, you always want to reach out to a Georgia workers compensation attorney. And more specifically someone who handles both Georgia workers compensation and Georgia personal injury, so you can get the understanding of what's going on on both of those types of claims. If you have any specific questions about a, what we call a “Combination Claim”-- where you've been involved in a motor vehicle collision and a workers compensation claim at the same time. Feel free to give our office a call and we'll see you on the next video.

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Hello, my name is Ty Wilson. I'm a Georgia workers compensation attorney, practicing law in the state of Georgia. And our video topic for today is, “Can I handle my work injury claim on my own without an attorney?” And the short answer is yes. 

However, I would warn you that there are certain mistakes that are made early on in the claim that could prove detrimental to your claim. What do I mean? Well in selecting the doctor, do you know if that employer has what is called a valid posted Panel of Physicians? How do you know? These are some of the things that a work injury lawyer can help you with. 

If you've been taken out of work and now the employer says, “We have work for you”. Should you go back? I would say that you need to speak with a Georgia Workers Compensation Attorney before you make that fatal error as it could have a detrimental impact on your claim. And the bigger question is, “To what extent are your injuries?”. 

If they're minor injuries and you're getting back to work. Absolutely, you can handle this claim on your own. However, if you're kidding yourself and you're hurt seriously and you're not going to be able to return back to the heavy work that you were doing. You need to reach out to a Georgia workers compensation attorney. You need to Speak to him. Get an understanding of what you're entitled to under workers comp. It's not the same as a personal injury case. And ask questions. Then determine, “Is it in your best interest to obtain an attorney?” And if so, “Why?” “Have that attorney explained it to you?” 

We try to explain that in every consultation that we have. Our consultations are free, most of them are. And so you can speak with several workers compensation attorneys. And get their idea on what they would do in your case where you're at. Is it something that they wish to take on? Some attorneys won't take on minor injuries. Some attorneys won't take on hand injuries only. Some attorneys won't take on hernia injuries. 

The’re a whole bunch of different types of ways that you can get hurt in the workers compensation world. And so reach out, speak to them and you have to have a comfort level with whoever you're seeking representation from. You want to make sure that somebody you feel like you can contact. Somebody that's going to be doing everything they can to help you. And to be more importantly communicating with you. We hope this information has been helpful and we'll see you on the next video. 

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Hello, my name is Ty Wilson, I'm a Georgia workers compensation attorney, practicing law in the state of Georgia. And our video topic for today is, got a call from someone who was involved in a motor vehicle collision while they were working. So they have two separate claims, they have a workers compensation claim and they have a personal injury claim. And their question to me was, “Which one do I use or set up and move with first? What is the priority of the two claims?”

That is a very personal decision. However, I will say that with the benefits that you're allowed under the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act, you're allowed medical care for your injuries. And then if you're taken out of work or put on light duty work and your employer is not able to accommodate your light duty, you may then be entitled to weekly income benefits. Whereas on a personal injury side of things, you are obtaining Medical Care on your own and coming out of pocket unless the medical provider is working with you on a lien basis. 

And if you are out of work, you are seeking the lost wages at the conclusion of the claim, so they're typically in a personal injury claim. There is no money that's paid out as you seek treatment. It is something where you seek reimbursement for the treatment that you've obtained while you've been getting both the medical care and lost wages. And pain and suffering workers comp on the other hand does not have pain and suffering. 

What we like to do is, we like to set up the workers compensation claim, get the income or get the injuries taken care of by medical providers, which is paid for by workers compensation. And then if you qualify for income benefits, we certainly look at obtaining the income benefits. And getting you back to where you were, hopefully prior to the motor vehicle collision. And then dealing with the personal injury later on down the road. 

There is a possibility that workers compensation will say, “Hey we want to be paid back.”-- it's called subrogation. And so that's something that you definitely want to have an attorney involved with if you have a situation like that. If you have a specific question about a personal injury and workers compensation, we call a “combination claim”. Feel free to check out our other videos. Give us a call and we'll see you on the next video. Thank you. 

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So what is the general process of a Georgia Workers’ Compensation claim? Hello, My name is Ty Wilson and I am a Georgia Workers’ Compensation attorney. And our question today is, “What is the general process of a Georgia workers compensation claim?” Typically speaking, if someone is injured on the job, it's important that you immediately notify your supervisor and or boss that: 

1. You've been injured on the job 
2. You need medical care for your injuries. 

Once you get that set up, they will put together an injury report. And typically you will be in communication at some point with the adjuster and this is if you do not hire an attorney. The adjuster will set up an appointment for you to get some medical care. If it's urgent you can go to an urgent care clinic as long as you know, the question is, “Is there a panel of Physicians with the employer?” and so forth.

If you speak with a Georgia workers compensation attorney, they will kind of Take the Lead make sure the appointment is set up for your medical care. And start moving your case along and the question is, “Where does your medical care go?” “Is it something that's minor and you're getting back to work quickly in less than seven days?” You won't be entitled to any income benefits. And so if you're back at work within three or four days, then you're back at work. 

If the entry gets worse you go back to the doctor they may or may not adjust your restrictions. And that they may or may not take you out of work. And if you are never taken out of work for more than seven days and you're back at work, you have what's called a medical only claim, where the insurance company will pay for the medical care as it relates to your claim and you're not entitled to income benefits. 

If on the other hand, you're taken out of work for more than seven days, the first seven days, they don't have to pay you for, initially. After seven days, They should start your income benefits. After the income benefits, if you're paid income benefits for 21 days, three weeks in a row, then they will pay you for the first seven days. And from there you're receiving Medical Care and you're receiving the workers compensation checks. 

Typically speaking that will go on until you get better or you reach what is called maximum medical improvement. Where the doctor believes that they cannot improve you medically anymore at that point in time. They will release you from care. They will give you an impairment rating which could provide you with a permanent partial disability disability benefit or payment as well. Once that happens, the question is, “Are you able to get back to work or not?”. If you're able to get back to work, they'll pay you out the permanent impairment rating weekly. And then you're back at work like it never happened. 

If you're not able to return back to work for whatever reason, then there is a possibility that the workers compensation insurance adjuster may or may not want to settle the claim. It just depends on where you are in the process. That's the general process of workers compensation claim, if you're receiving income benefits, or if you're just a medical only claim. 

If you have specific questions, always recommended you speak with Georgia Workers’ Compensation Attorney. The consultations are free. So you have nothing to lose. And you can find out more information quickly in a phone call especially with the specifics of your particular claim. We hope that that's answered your question and we'll see you on the next video. 

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Do you have to use the doctor that's on their panel? Hello, my name is Ty Wilson. I'm a Georgia Workers’ Compensation Attorney, practicing law in the State of Georgia. And our video question for today is, “Do you have to use orthopedic that's on their list of, what's called, “Posted Panel of Physicians”?.”

Well, the question is, “Is the posted panel of Physicians a legally valid Posted Panel of Physicians?” or is this something that the employer just said, “Go to this doctor”. So there's a lot of questions, probably more questions than can be answered on this video. If there is a legally valid posted panel of Physicians, you are required to use them as far as your medical care. However, there are a lot of questions. Is the orthopedic someone who is an orthopedic for your foot and you have a back injury? Is it an orthopedic for the back and you have a foot injury?  So there are a lot of questions that go into that. 

My recommendation would be, reach out to a Georgia workers compensation attorney. Pick their brain. Get an idea of, you know, “Is this something that is worth pursuing to get the medical care that I need so that I can get back on my feet and get back more importantly to earning the income I was earning before I got hurt on the job?” We hope that this has been helpful and we'll see you on the next video. 

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So, how do you report a repetitive motion injury? Hello, my name is Ty Wilson. I'm a Georgia workers compensation attorney practicing law in the state of Georgia. And our question, our video topic for today is, “How do you report a repetitive motion injury?”. Well, most injuries are an event that occurs or an injury that happens such as lifting something and you feel a pop in your back and all the sudden you have all this pain. That would be an event that occurred that caused the injury. Whereas a repetitive motion injury, a little trickier, is where you're moving the same body part in the same direction and gradually over time it gets worse and worse and worse. 

Our suggestion is once you get to the point where you're feeling a great deal of pain, you need to report it to your supervisor and or boss. You need to ask them for medical care as it relates to your injury. And see if in fact they will give you Medical Care. Some employers will not, some employers will. If they will, seek medical care, let them know what you were doing.  Exactly what your job functions are and how you were doing it. And let them know what kind of pain you're in as a result of that. They will determine. Do they believe that this is work-related or not work-related? And on you go. 

The important part is that, once you start feeling the pain and it's not going away, we all have different types of general soreness from doing something. However, if the pain is reoccurring over and over and getting worse and worse, you need to report that to your employer. You need to let them know because that could be an indication that you're about to get into a great deal of pain and not be able to function as an employee. If you don't tell the employer, the employer will think that you one injured yourself doing something else to do not need medical care and will potentially terminate you. 

If in fact you're a no-show or you can't do the work at the same speed and what have you. And so it's very important that you monitor yourself in the sense of, “Is the pain getting worse?”, “Do you just need a day or two off?”, “What are the circumstances?”. If you have any specific questions, always reach out to a Georgia Workers’ Compensation Attorney. We hope that answers your question and we will look for you on the next video.

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What is the process for getting a diagnostic test, MRIs? What have you, whatever my doctor has asked me to do or ordered me to do, medically speaking, in my workers compensation claim? What's the process? Hello, my name is Ty Wilson. I'm a Georgia workers compensation attorney, practicing law in the state of Georgia. And there is a process to minimize the amount of delay. 

One of the biggest frustrations in workers compensation is the unnecessary delay of getting these diagnostic tests, MRIs, prescriptions, refilled and all this other stuff approved from the adjusters. So, “the process”. If your doctor tells you that you need an MRI, for example. You need to wait around after the appointment for the script, or the prescription-- script is short for prescription; the prescription in writing from that doctor that says you need an MRI. And it will say what type of MRI; lumbar, cervical, what happened or of different body part. 

Anyway, you want that documentation. You want to take that documentation and you want to email it and or fax it, preferably fax it to the adjuster. Get a fax confirmation. In that you want to say, “Here is a script for my MRI. Please let me know when this will be authorized.”. And then you want to follow up with a phone call. If you have an attorney, they certainly can help you and will take the lead on this. However, the attorney still needs your help. They need your help in the sense that they need that written script. If you say, “Ooh The doctor said, they'll send it to the adjuster. No big deal.”. Well as an attorney, I have to still follow up with the doctor's office. And maybe they've done the script, maybe they haven’t. 

This work injury is more important to you than it is to the staff at the doctor's office. So, in order to help facilitate your claim, it's important that you participate. And you participate by waiting, making sure you get the script and then sending it either to your attorney and or the adjuster to keep things moving. These cases go through a lot of delay. And a lot of it is you don't know if that doctor's office has actually sent the script. You don't know if that doctor's office actually has the script, unless you have it in your hands and you can forward it onto the adjuster. When you contact the adjuster, the adjuster may or may not have it and they may still tell you, “Well, I still got to get the script.”. You need to eliminate all that. Give them the script and say, “Well I fax you the script and here's confirmation that says it went through to you. I'll fax it to you again. I need you to confirm that you received it.”

Now, you've eliminated the whole guesswork of, “Did the doctor's office send it to the adjuster?” “Did the adjuster actually receive it?”. Now, you've eliminated all that. Now, it's get it scheduled as quickly as possible. It helps minimize delays for you and your care. And when you're in a lot of pain, that can mean a lot. So we hope that you found this information helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our office and we'll see you on the next video. 

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You were injured on the job, and the first question you have is, “should the employer be paying for your medical bills?”. Hello, my name is Ty Wilson. I'm a Georgia workers compensation attorney. And our question today is “Is it the responsibility of the employer to pay for your medical bills?” Which it seems like a straightforward question, but the reality is there is an employer and there is an insurance company.

Not all employers are what is called subject to the workers compensation act and therefore not all of them are required to have Workers Compensation Insurance. A good guideline would be, does your employer have three or more employees? If they do, then there's a good chance that they're supposed to have workers compensation under the workers compensation act or Workers Compensation Insurance under the workers compensation act. So that is a good guideline to go by.

Just because I have three or more employees, doesn't always mean that they have Workers Compensation Insurance. You can contact the Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation. They have what is called a coverage unit. You can ask them. You can give them your employer's name and address. And they should be able to tell you if there is workers compensation insurance coverage.

The insurer is typically the one who pays the medical bills and potentially weekly checks,   We've covered those in other videos. However, they’re long and short videos. The employer would pay, if there is no workers compensation insurance coverage. If they have the ability to do so. It gets trickier when there's no insurance coverage on the plan. We hope that answered your question. We'll see you in the next video.

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Hello, my name is Ty Wilson. I'm Georgia workers’ compensation attorney. And our question for today is what exactly are income benefits? When you get injured on the job, you may be entitled to income benefits. So what is that?

Well, if you are taken completely out of work for more than seven days by what is called an authorized treating physician, that is kind of a tricky deviation there. You may be entitled to income benefits as it relates to your injury. Now, a couple things you need to know: 

1. As soon as you get hurt on the job, you need to tell your employer immediately. 
2. I've been hurt on the job. I need medical care for my injuries. 

If you get to a medical doctor and  the doctor takes you out of work for seven days, and the employer has approved the medical doctors' visit and authorized it then you arguably should be entitled to income benefits. What does that mean? And it's not lost wages. Income benefits, what happens is workers comp takes 13 weeks prior to your injury. They average out your pay. It's called your average weekly wage and then they pay you two-thirds of that wage. And they cap it. Currently, the cap rate has recently been increased. And so the current maximum comp rate in Georgia is 675 that is changing from time to time. 

So it's always important depending upon when you're watching this video that you speak with a Georgia workers compensation attorney or you contact the Georgia State Board of workers compensation and inquire as to what is the maximum rate or where you can find the maximum comp rate. Now, if you're getting, if you're qualified to get income benefits, they should start paying you the checks promptly after you've been taken out of work for more than seven days. That's going to require some communication with the insurance adjuster. 

And so, you want to make sure that you keep great records. If a doctor takes you out of work and gives you a work status slip that says you are out of work and it gives you a particular time period that you're out of work. You want to keep that because that is your proof that you may be entitled to income benefits. 

If you have specific questions, it is always recommended that you speak with a Georgia workers compensation attorney. If you have any specific questions, feel free to give us a call at the number on the screen or come visit us at our website. Thank you.

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What is the maximum amount of income benefits you can receive under Georgia workers compensation? Hello, my name is Ty Wilson. I'm a Georgia workers compensation attorney. And our question today is what are the maximum benefits you can receive in workers compensation in Georgia?

Currently, this is being filmed in August of 2020. The highest workers compensation comp rate is six hundred and seventy-five dollars per week. How’d they get to that number? Well, they take your average weekly wage.

First of all, from the date of your injury, they go back 13 weeks. They take your average weekly wage of those 13 weeks and then they pay you 67% or  two-thirds (⅔) of that and then it is capped if your average weekly wage is above 675. They're only going to pay you 675. That's the current top rate. And keep in mind that these rates change from time to time and they've changed rather frequently about every year they've been changing.

And so, if you're watching this video well beyond 2020, there is a high possibility that the Rate has gone up. You'll need to speak with a Georgia workers compensation  attorney and or take a look on the web. And maybe contact the Georgia State Board of workers compensation, if you just want that information. We hope that you found this information helpful, and we'll see you on the next video.

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