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​Experienced ILLINOIS Workers’ Compensation Lawyers
& CHICAGO Injury Lawyers

Medical Benefits for Injured FedEx Drivers

Chicago Lawyers to Fight for Medical Benefits for Injured FedEx Drivers

You can get injured in many different ways on the job with FedEx: crashes, chronic or repetitive stress injuries, patches of dangerous road, dog bites, unsafe property conditions, and exacerbation of a preexisting condition. If you were injured on the job as a FedEx driver in Illinois, you may need to obtain medical benefits through the workers’ compensation system. You should call the seasoned Chicago workers’ compensation attorneys of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca. We have sixty years of experience protecting workers’ rights.

What Medical Benefits are Available for Injured FedEx Drivers?

You should obtain medical care once you know you’ve been injured. It’s important to seek emergency care to address work injuries; this is part of your medical benefit. If you’re able to speak, you should let the ER doctor and nurses know that you were injured on the job. FedEx’s insurer should pay for your medical care. You will have two choices of doctor for your treating physician, not counting your ER doctor.

While you can choose your doctor, employers often belong to a Preferred Provider Program (PPP). This means FedEx may require you to choose a doctor who is in that PPP network. While you have two choices of doctors within the system, you may only have a choice of one treating physician should you choose to go outside the network. The single choice will include your doctor’s referral to a specialist.

It is important to choose your treating physician wisely, while staying aware that you are allowed to change doctors one time, if you are not getting the appropriate care from the first chosen provider. Your treating doctor will have a big impact on your case, since he or she is the one who determines whether you’ve reached maximum medical improvement.

Following Recommendations

Once you’ve selected a treating physician for your work injuries, you should follow his or her recommendations. It’s important to be aware that the insurer will be looking at whether you follow those recommendations or not. You may even be subject to surveillance, either on social media or in your everyday life. In some cases, insurers even ask IME doctors to scrutinize patients as they approach and leave the doctor’s office. Be scrupulously honest about your injuries and avoid social media requests from people you don’t personally know.

Medical Benefits Include Treatment

When you choose and see your treating doctor, you should let him or her know that the injuries were experienced on the job and provide the information from the workers’ compensation insurer. This not only creates documentation accurately linking the work injuries to your job but allows your treating physician to bill the workers’ compensation insurance company directly.

You are entitled to all the reasonable medical services you need for your injuries. These benefits can include medications, physical therapy, treating doctors’ visits, physical therapy, and surgery.

Third Party Lawsuit

While workers’ compensation benefits are no-fault benefits, a personal injury lawsuit requires proof of fault. If you were injured in a FedEx truck accident caused by someone other than your employer, our Chicago attorneys may be able to pursue damages by filing a third party lawsuit. Often, our lawyers will need to show another driver’s negligence. This means we’d need to prove it’s more likely than not: (1) the other driver owed you a duty of care, (2) breach of the duty of care, (3) causation, and (4) damages. All drivers owe a duty of care to others with whom they share the road.

While you are entitled to medical benefits but no damages for pain and suffering through a workers’ compensation claim, our attorneys may be able to seek medical benefits, and also try to recover noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium.

Consult an Experienced FedEx Driver Attorney

Our Chicago workers’ compensation benefits attorneys seek medical benefits for injured FedEx drivers in Aurora, Champaign, Rockford, Quincy, as well as Winnebago, Kane, Sangamon, Cook, and Adams Counties. We also represent clients in third party lawsuits and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) claims. Call us at 312-724-5846 or complete our online form.