Medical Benefits for Injured Airline Workers
Workers’ Compensation Lawyers for Claims in Chicago
From injuries caused by overexertion to vehicle accidents on the tarmac to falling baggage, airline workers can suffer injuries in many different ways. In Illinois, airlines are expected to buy workers’ compensation insurance for employees. The insurer funds payment of benefits for your workers’ compensation claim in the event you are injured while working for the airline. A number of different benefits are provided through workers’ compensation. If you are concerned about medical benefits for injured airline workers, a seasoned Chicago workers’ compensation attorney can answer your questions.
Medical Benefits for Injured Airline Workers
You can obtain medical benefits after a work injury under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act. Your employer or its insurer is supposed to provide and pay for medical care in this context. This may be subject to a fee schedule. The medical care that’s covered by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act includes all emergency first aid, medical and surgical services, and any follow-up that’s reasonably required to treat or relieve the effects of the work injury. Assuming an employer doesn’t dispute the payment, it is supposed to make the payment to your medical provider directly on your behalf.
Your airline employer is also supposed to pay for the treatment, instruction, and training that’s needed for your vocational, mental, and physical rehabilitation. This includes all maintenance costs and expenses. If you’re not capable of being self-sufficient because of an injury sustained on the job, the employer is supposed to further pay for the institutional care or maintenance as needed.
Choosing Your Provider
As an injured airline worker, you may choose your own doctor, surgeon, or hospital services. In Illinois, employers can choose to set up preferred provider networks; they do not have to have a network, but setting up a network is incentivized by the system. If an employer has a preferred provider network, you can choose from that set of doctors. If you aren’t satisfied with the first doctor you choose from the network, you are entitled to make an alternative choice of doctor. You can make two choices, assuming you select from the preferred provider network. Either of the two doctors chosen from the panel can arrange for you to have a referral or consultation with a specialist, and this will not count towards your two choices.
If you decide not to choose a doctor from the airline’s preferred provider network, you will only get one choice of doctor. This choice includes your doctor’s referral to specialists.
If the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission determines the doctor you chose is rendering inadequate or inappropriate care, it can order you to choose another doctor that’s certified or qualified in the appropriate medical field related to the treatment you need. If you don’t make the change, the Commission can let your employer off the hook; it can decide the employer doesn’t have to pay medical bills from the date you refused to the date you comply. If you encounter a dispute with regard to payment for medical care, a knowledgeable work injury lawyer can help you determine how to respond.
Getting Medical Treatment Through Workers’ Compensation
When an airline worker is injured in a major accident on the job, the employer may know about the injury right away. For example, if you were run over on the tarmac and an ambulance comes to take you to receive emergency care, your employer may be aware of the incident. However, it’s still important to provide written notification.
Even if you are not taken by an ambulance to the hospital, you should seek medical treatment right away after a work accident. Getting treatment can establish a causal link between the workplace accident and your injuries, and this may make it easier to obtain the full scope of benefits you need.
Consult an Experienced Workers’ Compensation Attorney in Chicago
If you have questions about medical benefits for injured airline workers in Chicago, you can call us. The seasoned lawyers of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca represent injured airline workers in Rockford, Champaign, Aurora and Quincy, along with Kane, Sangamon, Winnebago, Adams, and Cook Counties. Call us at 312-724-5846 or contact us via our online form.