Grundy Center Workers Compensation Attorneys

Suffering an injury on the job is stressful enough without having to worry about whether you will be fired, whether switching jobs will hurt your claim, or whether your injury even qualifies as a workplace injury in the first place. For workers in Grundy Center, Iowa, these questions come up constantly, and the answers are rarely as simple as employers and insurance companies make them sound.

Walker, Billingsley & Bair has spent decades helping injured Iowans understand their rights under workers' compensation law. This page brings together what Grundy Center workers need to know about what counts as a workplace injury, what happens if you get fired while receiving benefits, and how switching jobs during a claim can affect your case.

What Qualifies as a Workplace Injury in Iowa?

Each year in Iowa, more than 35,000 workers are hurt on the job. Many Grundy Center workers are not entirely sure whether their specific situation counts as a workplace injury under Iowa law. The most common work injuries involve Iowans performing physical manual labor, resulting in either a traumatic injury or a cumulative injury that worsens over time.

These are just a few examples of what can be considered a work injury in Iowa, and there are many other scenarios that may also qualify.

What Should I Do If I Am Hurt on the Job in Grundy Center?

Iowa law requires that you report your work injury within 90 days of when it occurred, subject to some very limited exceptions. The first thing you should do after an injury is report it to your employer.

What Happens After You Report Your Work Injury?

Iowa is an employer-choice medical care state, meaning that your employer and their workers' compensation insurance carrier will most likely direct your medical care and treatment. It is much more common for the insurance company to get involved and send injured workers to their own doctors. If you need emergency medical care, however, you are not required to seek approval or a referral from your employer or their insurance company beforehand.

The employer's right to direct your medical care does not mean they get to limit or ignore what their own doctors recommend. If the workers' compensation approved doctor recommends a referral to a surgeon, an MRI, pain management, physical therapy, or some other treatment, the insurance company should pay for it. Often, insurance companies drag their feet and fail to approve recommended care, which may require an injured worker to proceed with what is known as a petition for alternative medical care.

Reaching MMI and Your Impairment Rating

Once your doctors say you are at MMI (maximum medical improvement), your case is not over. Many insurance companies will send a letter stating they are closing the file and will not authorize any additional medical care. This is not what Iowa law actually requires, but if no one pushes the issue, the insurance company may avoid paying for additional medical costs.

Once you reach MMI, the company doctor should evaluate you for permanent impairment, known as a functional impairment rating, which in Iowa is based on the AMA Guides 5th Edition. The doctor reviews your medical condition and assigns a percentage of disability based on those guidelines.

If you do not agree with your impairment rating, Iowa Code Section 85.39 allows you to seek your own independent medical examination (IME) once your employer has a rating report from their doctor. This is not something to take lightly, since many doctors who perform IMEs for insurance companies regularly may provide a lower rating as a result.

What If I Get Fired While on Workers' Comp in Grundy Center?

This is one of the most common and frightening questions injured workers ask, and frankly, it is a very real part of a work injury case here in Iowa. Please note that your employer can fire you while you are receiving workers' compensation benefits. You are an employee at will under Iowa law, which means you can be fired for any reason or no reason at all.

There may be some protection for you under the FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act), the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), or a collective bargaining agreement through a union. However, these laws do not change the fact that you can be fired. They may simply allow you, later on, to get your job back along with potentially additional damages.

Terminated Because of a Work Injury

There are many different points when an employer may fire an injured worker. Sometimes a worker is fired immediately after the injury for a safety violation. Other times, an injured worker is fired while off work healing from their injuries after using up 12 weeks of FMLA time. A common time for an injured worker to be fired is once they have reached MMI and been given permanent work restrictions.

Terminated for Some Other Reason

There are dozens of other reasons an employer may use to fire an injured worker. Employers will often look for a way to fire an injured employee that is not connected to the work injury, in an attempt to reduce the compensation that worker receives. Common claims include that the injured worker did not perform their job properly, was late, missed work for personal matters, or committed some form of employment misconduct. Just because your employer claims you were fired for a reason other than your work injury does not mean that claim is true.

Filing for Unemployment After a Work Injury Termination

If your employer fires you, you will likely want to consider filing for unemployment, but this involves several important requirements.

What Happens to My Workers' Comp Case If I Switch Jobs?

Your Iowa workers' comp case will remain open if you decide to switch jobs while you are still treating for your injury. However, doing so can create many problems, because if you have additional issues at your new job, the workers' compensation insurance company can blame your new job for those problems and deny further medical care and treatment. This can leave you in a difficult situation, potentially having to file a new claim against your new employer entirely.

While you technically can switch jobs during a workers' comp case, it may not be the best decision for your claim.

Medical Care and Treatment Risks

Technically, you have lifetime medical care and treatment under Iowa law for work injuries. This sounds great but is not as great as it sounds in practice. All the insurance company has to do is obtain an opinion letter from another doctor, who does not even have to examine or meet you, stating that your current problems are not caused by the original work injury. This gives them a legal basis to deny further medical care and treatment, which is exactly what an insurance company is likely to do if you change jobs while still treating for your work injuries.

Industrial Disability Analysis

There is often a significant difference in compensation between scheduled member injuries (hands, feet, arms, legs, and eyes) and industrial injuries (back, neck, brain, CRPS, and mental injuries following a physical injury). Under current Iowa law, regardless of the type of injury sustained, if an injured worker is still employed by the same employer making the same or more money, they are generally limited to the functional impairment rating provided by the AMA Guides. If your employment ends with the employer where you were injured, whether voluntarily or not, and it is a body as a whole injury, you may be entitled to a full industrial disability analysis instead. This is a complex area of law, and the approach that benefits you most depends entirely on your individual circumstances.

Quitting Your Job Mid-Claim

One of the worst things you can do is quit your job in the middle of your workers' comp treatment. If you are off work receiving TTD benefits, those benefits will likely end. If you are also considering unemployment, this becomes difficult since you quit voluntarily and must still be ready, willing, and able to work to qualify.

Retiring or Discussing Retirement

If you are an older worker considering retirement, choosing to retire while your workers' comp case is pending can significantly affect your compensation. Current law allows your employer and their insurance company to use retirement as a primary factor when determining how much compensation you should receive in an industrial disability claim. Do not let an employer, supervisor, or even a doctor push you into retirement while your workers' comp claim is still pending, and be careful about discussing any retirement plans with anyone connected to your case.

What Should I Sign?

You are required to sign a patient's medical authorization, which allows your employer and their insurance company access to your medical records both before and after the work injury. If you refuse to provide a signed medical authorization, they can deny your case and provide no medical care or compensation.

If an insurance adjuster or your employer suggests that you sign settlement documents to close your case, this is very different and should be approached carefully. They will usually not pursue this until after you have reached MMI, but sometimes a small early offer is made in hopes that you accept less than your case is worth. Settlement documents typically require you to sign a Global Release, meaning you give up any potential employment law claims you may have as well.

Steps to Protect Your Grundy Center Workers' Comp Claim