Reasons Your Worker's Compensation Disability Payments Stopped

Posted by latimerlaw on February 17th, 2020

There are few things that can be worse than waking up to the fact that your disability payments have stopped. It often comes at a time when you are putting back the pieces in your life after having suffered a major injury and having undergone expensive treatment and rehabilitation. One of the biggest problems with Workers’ Compensation is the fact that most workers have a very vague understanding of it. It isn’t surprising as you are unlikely to study this till you have to seek benefits and compensation after suffering from injury or workplace induced illness. But the stoppage of benefits does have a direct impact on your life and others in the family.

It is very unlikely that your employer would give you an advanced notice on your benefits being stopped to let you prepare for this. Most of them often leave it to insurance companies to pass on this information to the injured workers. We all know how the insurers work when it comes to paying compensation and these companies merely meet the legal obligation of informing you. Any Oakland workers compensation attorney would tell you that it is in very rare cases that injured workers do get prior intimation on the stoppage of benefits from employers or insurers. But why have your benefits stopped suddenly? Let us take a look at some of the reasons that may have led to your disability benefits being stopped -

• Under Workers’ Compensation in California, you are entitled to receive a maximum 104 weeks of temporary disability benefits and you may have exhausted that
• Your employer may have requested you to undergo an Independent Medical Exam. You need to undergo this exam irrespective of the seriousness of the injury and your trouble with mobility. If you refused to take the same your disability benefits can be stopped
• You have refused to comply with the treatment ordered by your treating doctor. If the doctor reports that you aren’t complying with the treatment plan your benefits may be stopped immediately
• Your doctor may have released you from Medical Treatment or with restrictions and suggesting your employer can accommodate you in a different role
• The Qualified Medical Evaluator (QME) or the treating doctor has declared your medical condition to be “Permanent and Stationary”
• You have resumed work and earning wages that are equal or higher to your pre-injury wages and in such cases, your benefits would be immediately terminated

These are some of the reasons why Workers’ compensation disability stops. One of the tricks employed by employers or their insurers is to file a petition to modify, suspend or terminate your disability benefits. This petition is decided by a judge who looks at the merits of the case. Insurers also force you to through an independent medical exam where a favored physician with a record of turning down compensation claims usually turns down claims of injuries and reports workers fit to resume work. In such cases, you need to fight back for your benefits and immediately get in touch with an Oakland Workers Compensation Attorney.