Legal Question in Workers Comp in California
What happens if I have be cleared to go back to work from an injury and then a month later it comes back? The doctor said I have to have surgery but I have already used 9 months of 4850. What are my options? This is a job related injury and this is the second time I have been cleared and returned to full duty only to have the injury return.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Your major interest should be in getting better. If you have to go off work you are entitled to full salary for the remainder of the original one year period. If it is a new injury than a new period of full salary for a year would start. Your work may be too strenuous for you to return to those duties full time so you might have to look into taking a disability retirement.
What Happens? YOU MAKE THE DECISION TO return to the same physician and complain of ongoing pain/weakness/symptoms... or tough it out to guarantee you keep this job.
YOUR OPTIONS?? (1) return to the same doctor and report the symptoms returned. IF THIS physician then writes you will never be cleared to return to full duty, you are out of a job.
(2) Choose a new treating physician... maybe a more competent physician more concerned with getting the problem healed instead of limiting the employer's 4850 payments would get you a pain managment regimen (acupuncture? pain patches? ) that would permit you to continue in this position with lighter ongoing symptoms.
(3) DISAGREE with the treating physician and request a Panel Qualified Medical Evaluation.
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