If you’ve been injured at work, it’s easy to focus on the physical injury. Workplace injuries can be traumatic experiences, and they often come with a lot of stress and change to your routine. It’s not surprising that many patients develop “mental injuries” alongside their physical ones. If you’ve developed a mental condition as a result of your workplace injury, you might be asking “does workers comp cover mental illnesses?”.
Many patients develop conditions such as anxiety or depression after an injury at work. While these conditions are a result of the injury, they often don’t manifest immediately after the injury. Instead they’ll develop over time as a result of the trauma and stress of your injury, as the result of chronic pain, or as a result of your inability to work.
North Carolina courts have said that workman’s compensation carriers are responsible for providing medical treatment for not only your initial injury or disease but also for any condition that develops as a “direct and natural consequence” of your compensable condition.
Because of this, it’s important that you speak with your doctor about any mental issues or symptoms that you think may have been caused by your injury. That way your doctor will be able to give their opinion as to whether the conditions are actually related. You’ll want to make sure that any relationship between your initial injury and developed conditions is recorded so that you can present it as evidence.
I frequently speak with veterans who express concern about their ability to earn both Social Security Benefits and Veterans Disability Benefits. The good news is that you can earn both at the same time. In fact, in some cases, VA disability benefits can help you earn Social Security benefits.
If you’re receiving veterans’ disability, then Social Security is going to strongly take that into consideration. In their eyes, another government agency has already declared your injury legitimate and decided that you are in need of benefits. Unfortunately, this doesn’t really work the other way. If you’re already receiving Social Security benefits, the VA isn’t necessarily going to take that into consideration because there’s no way of knowing if your Social Security benefits are service-related.
There are a few differences between Social Security Benefits and Veterans Disability Benefits. For instance, in order to receive Social Security benefits, you must be completely disabled — whereas with VA disability, you can have a low disability rating (sometimes as low as 10%).
Another big difference is the amount of weight your physician’s word has. With Social Security disability, your designated treating physician’s word is the final say. Your case can rely entirely on what your doctor says. However, with veterans’ disability, the VA considers all factors. Their policy says that your doctor could be biased, so they must look at any and all contributing factors.
When it comes to insurance med pay is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but I’ve found that a lot of people aren’t really sure what med pay exactly. Med pay refers to medical payments coverage, and it’s generally bought alongside car insurance. It’s a very catch-all kind of insurance that covers a wide range of injuries that you could get if you were to be involved in a car accident.
When you purchase med pay, the insurance company agrees to pay reasonable expenses for the necessary medical treatment you receive as the result of your accident. This basically means that they’re going to cover your accident-related injuries as long as you don’t send them an unreasonably high bill. They’ll look at the cost of similar procedures in the area where you received treatment to determine whether or not the cost of your procedures is unusually high.
As with many other kinds of insurance, there is a limit to how late you can make your claim. In the case of med pay, you have three years from the date of your accident to make your claim. Med pay can also cover more than one family member, and it doesn’t matter whether they’re driving, a passenger, or a pedestrian who’s been struck by a vehicle.
If you’re wondering how much med pay insurance costs, the answer varies on how much coverage you want. Some plans can be as cheap as $500 while others could be $1 million if you wanted to spend that money.
We’ve written in the past about hip replacement implant recalls and lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson. Recently one of Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary companies, DuPuy Orthopedics has been involved in a number of cases surrounding defective hip replacement implants.
These medical devices have been recalled due to the fact that they caused a number of complications in patients that received them. Patients reported symptoms such as pain, difficulty standing, limited mobility, loosening of the prosthetic joint, metal poisoning and hip replacement failure. Many of these patients required a second surgery to correct the first one.
It’s not uncommon for there to be complications when it comes to risky surgeries; however, the reason DuPuy is being held responsible is partly due to the fact that they did not conduct sufficient premarket testing. As a result they are currently embroiled in a series of bellweather trials to settle the claims.
The point of a bellweather trial is to address multiple claims over the same issue. The patients who experienced negative side effects from their DuPuy hip replacement implants were able to have their case heard through this bellweather trial. That way one judge could make a decision on a large number of cases, rather than having multiple judges view each case individually. This not only helps with the speed at which these cases are settled, but also with the consistency of the outcomes of these cases.
The third DuPuy Hip Replacement Implant Trial concluded at the end of 2016. As a result, Johnson & Johnson was forced to pay $1 billion in punitive damages on top of $32 million in compensation.
At Oxner + Permar, we believe in giving back in a variety of ways, including providing valuable educational opportunities. It’s important that all citizens of the community are informed of their rights. Making information freely available is a huge part of ensuring that the community is aware of the the laws that concern their everyday life. That’s why we like to host informational events in and around the Greensboro area.
On June 23rd, we helped host an informational event at Daystar Church. The goal of this event was to speak on issues that affect the Hispanic community of Greensboro. We had a variety of speakers such as Eric Ramirez, one of our distinguished workers’ compensation attorneys.
We also heard from Jessica Yañez (Yañez Immigration Law), who spoke about the laws and regulations that often come into play with immigration. The Immigrants Rights Working Group joined us to talk about the different ways that they provide services to immigrants in the U.S. The group is dedicated to fighting anti-immigration policy, supporting immigration cases, and providing education on immigration law. And FaithAction International House partnered with us as advocates for immigrants working to build understanding and a sense of belonging. Finally, the Greensboro Police Department provided information and support, which we appreciate as well. It takes all kinds of partners to help ensure our community is well informed and well supported.
After a brief overview from each of the presenters on their area of expertise, we opened up the floor for a Q&A session. This was an excellent opportunity for members of the community to ask question and stay informed of their rights. We’re so glad this was such a successful event, and we hope to see you at the next one!
