September 21, 2018
Simply put, the last thing they want to do is provide the best treatment.
Workplace injuries are a leading cause of short- and long-term disability in Texas. Injuries occur in all job types, from construction to accounting. Falls, struck-by-object accidents, and repetitive-motion injuries are amongst the most common.
When you or a loved one suffer a disabling workplace injury, the results are devastating. Medical bills pile up quickly. Physical pain and mental suffering destroy the quality of life. Without income, bills become past due. Your family can be forced into loan defaults, have autos repossessed, and suffer foreclosure or eviction.
No person should suffer these devastating consequences because they were hurt while working for a living. Honest people deserve fair compensation for their workplace injuries. You’ve worked hard to build a life. Simply put, it is not acceptable for you to lose everything because you were hurt on the job.
Texas law provides for coverage for on-the-job injuries through its workers’ compensation program. However, Texas law does not require employers to have workers’ compensation insurance and, when it comes to insurance companies and certain unscrupulous employers, the last thing they want is to provide all necessary treatment. There is a built-in conflict of interest that everyone seems to ignore once an injury occurs. Their financial interests lie in denying the claim or minimizing what the insurance spends on your medical coverage and wage payments. If they succeed, you lose money for working and may lose everything you’ve worked to achieve. Even worse, the whole thing ends with you still injured.
Texas is one of the few states that allows employers of any size to opt out of workers’ compensation insurance. An employer without workers’ compensation insurance is termed a Non-Subscriber employer.
A Non-Subscriber employer must notify employees of its Non-Subscriber status.
The employer’s choice to decline insurance does not get them off the hook. It means the employer must pay the damages itself or through some type of work injury insurance program. However, the process of the case and standards of proof change dramatically. The catch is that you must be able to establish that your employer was negligent and, avoid the pitfalls insurance companies and unscrupulous employers use to trap injured employees.
What happens when the employer has no workers’ compensation?
Workers’ compensation insurance provides several advantages to the employee. First, the employee is entitled to compensation regardless of fault. Second, the employee receives compensation quickly. Third, the employer must provide medical care and disability pay.
If your Texas work injury resulted from negligence on the part of the employer or another party, contact a Texas lawyer before filing a compensation claim. In cases of negligence, employers can be sued for their actions or in-actions when it comes to providing a reasonable safe workplace for their employees. Those cases can sometimes be filed in State or Federal Court, as with most cases but, often times employers require that these disputes be resolved through the process of arbitration.
Generally, an injured employee in a non-subscriber setting will have their day in Court or in Arbitration. Rather that having the Worker’s Compensation program detail what compensation you are entitled to, a Texas Work Injury lawyer will fight for you to receive treatment and compensation based on your injuries. Even if an injury producing incident was only partially the employer’s fault, you could still pursue a case against your employer for that percentage of fault.
An experienced work injury attorney knows the law and can analyze the facts to determine likely causes for negligence.
Work accident and no medical treatment
Regardless of whether the claim will be handled by workers’ compensation or in court, an employer, with coverage, should provide reasonable medical treatment. If there is no coverage, and the injury resulted from negligence, the employer is not off the hook. It may take a fight but, if the injury resulted from employer negligence then a Texas Work Injury lawyer will need to prove that the employer is responsible for all damages resulting from the incident. If your employer is refusing to provide medical treatment, contact a work injury lawyer right away. You have rights.
Insurance companies often try to short change employees on work injury compensation claims.
In some cases, they will deny diagnostic exams. These exams are crucial in determining the full scope of treatment. Insurance companies deny diagnostics to reduce costs to them and to their insured, leaving the employee with inadequate treatment that can lead to chronic health problems. Remember that they have duties to their insured that insurance companies hold much more superior than any duty to provide medical treatment to an injured employee.
Because the insurance companies are mostly interested in saving money, emergency care clinics, doctors and other treating facilities are contracted to provide discounted treatment to a covered company’s injured employees. With this arrangement, it’s difficult to deny that the doctors really work for the insurance company and receive compensation for very limited services, which may leave the injured employee without acceptable treatment. In some cases, the doctor may offer opinions that help the insurance company and hurt the employee’s claim.
Insurance companies and employers don’t outwardly claim to be short-changing injured employees; however, they may use any of these tactics to avoid providing injured employees with rightful compensation. If you are injured on the job, contact attorney Steve Waldman for a free case evaluation. A workplace injury can cause severe financial hardship, so don’t accept less than the law entitles you.
Contact Attorney Steve Waldman at Waldman Legal Group at 713.688.4878 You have rights and he can help you understand them.
