Attorneys
As reported by KCCI on December 4th, 2025 Cedar Rapids-based trucking company CRST announced it will lay off more than 300 workers. These workers may be wondering what to do now, and if they were recently injured, they could be worried about not only finding a new job that will accommodate their injury but also the compensation they deserve from their injury at CRST.
Can I still receive workers' compensation benefits after being terminated?
The short answer is yes. In Iowa, being fired does not automatically disqualify you from workers’ compensation benefits. If your injury was work-related and your claim is valid, your former employer (or their insurance carrier) is still legally required to provide medical care and financial benefits.
How Iowa Workers’ Compensation Works
You have the right to medical care and treatment for your entire lifetime for medical conditions that are caused by your work. This sounds great, but in reality is not as great as it sounds because if the insurance company finds a doctor to say that your condition is not work related then they will likely stop paying for your medical care.
The Iowa workers’ compensation system is designed to provide support to injured workers by offering the following benefits:
- Medical treatment costs
- Temporary or permanent wage replacement
- Vocational training or rehabilitation
- Mileage reimbursement for travel to medical appointments
- Compensation for permanent disability
Iowa law does not require you to prove fault. As long as your injury happened during the course of your employment, you’re eligible.
Can I Still Get Workers’ Comp After Being Fired in Iowa?
Yes. If you were injured on the job, your employer and their insurance provider are still responsible for your medical care and financial benefits, even if you're no longer employed.
It does not matter whether you were:
- Laid off after the injury
- Fired while receiving workers’ compensation
- Terminated before filing your claim
As long as your injury meets the requirements for a compensable claim, you remain eligible for benefits.
Medical Care: Under Iowa law your employer and/or their workers' compensation insurance company is allowed to direct your medical care to the doctors and other medical providers that they select. They are required to pay for the medical care in its entirety for your work injury related condition.
It is possible to switch the medical care to other medical providers by using a process called a petition for alternate medical care, but there are specific things that must be done.
TTD: This stands for temporary total disability and is a weekly check that you should receive when you are unable to work or you have restrictions that your employer is not willing or able to accommodate.
PPD: This stands for permanent partial disability and is designed to compensate an injured worker for their permanent loss. How much the PPD compensation should be depends upon a number of factors including the type of injury you have (scheduled vs. unscheduled), the severity of your injury, your impairment rating, etc.
A scheduled member injury means injuries to your hand, arm, finger, leg, foot, toes, hearing loss or eye. Whereas an unscheduled injury (also known as a body as a whole injury) means injuries to your shoulder, neck, back, brain, hip, tinnitus, CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome), mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety caused by a physical injury, and other conditions and disorders of the body.
Keep in mind that there are exceptions to these general rules in determining if your work injury is scheduled or unscheduled, such as:
- If you have 3 scheduled member injuries that occur at the same time.
- If you sustained a scheduled member injury and previously sustained a scheduled member injury to a different body part (known as a Second Injury Fund case).
- If you sustained injuries to 2 scheduled member injuries and are permanently and totally disabled.
The difference between these various types of work injuries and the compensation that you should receive for them is explained in much more detail in our Iowa workers compensation book that we offer for free to Iowa injured workers and their families.
Rate: This is the amount of your weekly TTD or PPD check. Your rate can be calculated in a number of different ways, but if you are paid by the hour then generally you look for 13 representative weeks of your wages prior to your work injury. If you had a short week because of illness, a vacation, or some other reason, then usually that week will be skipped in calculating your rate. You are allowed to count the gross number of hours each week multiplied times your normal hourly rate including shift differentials.
Settlement: Every week we receive many calls from injured workers who want to make sure they receive a fair "settlement". The word settlement can have many meanings in an Iowa workers compensation case because there are several different types of settlements and because some of your compensation should be paid without you settling your case. Generally, the insurance company should pay your impairment rating given to you by their doctors without you "settling" your case.
Sometimes, they will try to get you to sign settlement paperwork before paying your impairment rating which is not right. Other times they will say they will pay you the entire impairment rating, plus a few thousand dollars if you will settle your case.
Why You Should Contact an Iowa Workers' Compensation Lawyer
Workers’ compensation laws in Iowa are complex—and even more so when you’ve been fired. An experienced lawyer can help:
- Ensure you continue to receive medical treatment
- Secure wage replacement or settlement benefits
- Represent you in hearings before the Iowa Workers' Compensation Commissioner
- Protect you from retaliation
- Maximize your financial recovery
At Walker, Billingsley & Bair, we’ve helped thousands of injured Iowans successfully navigate the claims process—even after being terminated.
Filing for unemployment
It would literally take hours to explain the entire unemployment system and how it works, but here are some general guidelines:
1. Ready, willing and able to work
This is a basic requirement before you even consider filing. Keep in mind that you do not have to certify that you can return to your old job, but rather that there is work available in the open labor market that you can do. For example, let's say you work in a factory and you cannot return to your factory job, but you could return to a light-duty desk job that your employer had you doing for a period of time. Also, maybe there is work in the past you have done that you can do or you could work at a local grocery or convenience store running a cash register, stocking shelves, etc. Before you have any type of phone interview, you should write down some of the jobs you think you could do.
2. Work credits
You have to have enough quarterly work credits in order to qualify. Keep in mind that if you were off work for 3 or more quarters because of your work-related injury, then Iowa Workforce is supposed to skip those quarters and look at the time prior to your work injury. However, rarely do they get this right. Usually, they will send out a notice that you do not qualify because you do not have enough credits. If this happens you need to timely provide Iowa Workforce with the correct information. You can try to do this on your own, but they are looking for very specific things such as your first report of injury, a letter from the insurance company stating TTD and PPD paid, medical records showing your date of MMI, etc.
3. Timing
Under Iowa law, you are not allowed to receive both TTD (temporary total disability) benefits and unemployment at the same time. If you file for unemployment too early in your case, then you are wasting the benefits that you otherwise may have received. However, if your workers’ comp claim has been denied and the employer is not offering you work, then it may make sense to go ahead and file.
Your Responsibilities as an Injured Worker
Report Your Injury: While the law gives you up to 90 days from the date of when you knew or should have known your condition was work related, it is a good idea to report your work injury right away.
Some companies have policies that you are supposed to report the work injury within 24 hours and you should follow these policies. However, even if your employer has such a policy in place and you don't report it until 48 hours later, you have still complied with Iowa law.
Communicate with Your Medical Providers: The workers compensation doctors and their nurses are supposed to accurately and completely record your symptoms, how you were injured, etc. It is very important that you accurately and consistently tell your doctors how you were injured along with all of the symptoms you are having because of your work injury.
Be Ready and Willing To Work: If the workers compensation doctor says that you can return to work with restrictions, then you need to provide a copy of the restrictions to your employer and tell them you are ready to work within the restrictions.
If they offer you work, then you need to try to do it. We recommend that you keep a copy of your restrictions in your pocket in case someone asks you to do something outside of your restrictions. If you have problems doing the work within your restrictions then you should promptly notify your supervisor and also call the doctor's office about this. You may need a follow-up appointment with the doctor to discuss different restrictions. If your employer does not have work for you, then the insurance company should be notified so that you will receive a weekly TTD check.
As an injured worker there are other responsibilities that you have which we explain in more detail in our Iowa work injury book that is available to you at no cost. Just request the book and we will send it to you right away so you can read it in the comfort of your own home. As a bonus, watch our video series HERE which tells you 21 Things You Need to Know About Iowa Work Injuries. For immediate attention or to schedule your no cost work injury case review, Chat Here Now, contact us online or CALL (641) 792-3595 and ask to speak with one of our workers' compensation attorneys.
