The Advantage of Clinic Care for Injured Workers

Did you know there are roughly under ten thousand people injured in work related accidents every year in Missouri alone? An injury can be anything from a slip on the ice to losing a limb in a work related accident. Regardless of how minor or major, each injury has to be reported to the employer in a set time frame by law or any future claim can be denied.

If you are injured at work you may need to seek medical attention but if you’re like most people you probably don’t have a regular physician and don’t want to wait hours in the emergency room of the hospital just to get a huge medical bill that you may be financially responsible for if your claim is denied.Since your worker compensation claim is dependent on your medical report, it is important that you seek medical care if you need it but you can get high quality medical care without going bankrupt to do it by going to a walk in clinic.

The advantage to a walk in clinic is the fact that they are generally open the same hours as a regular doctor’s office and you don’t need to wait days or weeks to get in to be seen quickly.
The first thing you will need to do if you are injured at work is let your supervisor know within thirty days of being injured. Your employer has the right to tell which medical facility, walk in clinic or hospital they want you to seek medical care with but if you are unsure if your employer has worker compensation insurance or you can’t reach your supervisor you may need to select your own medical care provider.

As soon as you get in to your medical provider or walk in clinic let them know you were injured at work and that this will be a worker comp claim. If your employer told you were to go for medical treatment they should be the ones to receive the bill for your medical visit but if you sought care on your own, you may be responsible for the medical bills until your claim is adjudicated.
Since you will be claiming an injury that occurred at work you should be prepared for your records to be open to your employer as well as the division of labor in your state who will be examining your claim.

Some injured employees prefer to ask the walk in clinic to have a drug test performed at the same time they are seeking medical treatment in order to rule out any future unsubstantiated claims by their employer down the road that eh injury may have been caused by drugs in the employee’s system.
And in a worst case scenario if your worker compensation claim is denied, a clinic is a more economical alternative to the emergency room, especially if you end up being responsible for an unexpected medial bill somewhere down the road.