workers com time to file claim

judy matt

Hello to all!

Does anyone know how long an individual has to file a workers comp claim? We had a maintenance man fall and hurt his back? I (the HR person responsible for filing the first injury claim) did not find out about the incident until approximately one month later. When I learned about the accident I filed the first report of injurt with our state's office of workers' compensation and contacted our local insurance carrier. I was wondering if there was a statue of limitations on filing or reporting a work related accident.

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Judy in Louisiana

HRLASS

Judy -
Generally the statutes of limitations is according to state law, so you will need to see what the law is in Louisiana. Yes, it is important. We have changed our policies to reflect the legal reporting time in New Mexico, which is 15 days, as we had it become a coverage issue in a case of contested benefits - and we won! If they do not report the accident in either a set number of days after the accident, or a set number of days after they should have known they were injured, they can lose benefit eligibility.

judy matt

Thanks for your prompt response. I have found the answer to my question. we have 30 days to file a claim here in Louisiana.

Whatever

As an aside, do you have a policy re reporting accidents immediately to the employer?

pork1

We do, based on our "world of work" punctured skin becomes an entrant point for germs. Anyone injured on the job must report the accident prior to leaving the work site today. If reported tomorrow, one violates company policy and they are briefed on the termination event. The employee fully expects the company to terminate the employer/employee relationship. We have in the past and we will do it again!

Claims reporting is a different story; and we can never deny medical attention claim if there was an accident/injury properly reposrted!

We have a neck injury claimed recently for an incident of bumping one's "noggin sufficiently to knock an employee out" back in the year 2000. Our W/C commission has let it go forward and we will be in court trying to chase it away due to a statue of limitations. There is not one person still in the company that knows of this accident w/injury. There is no 1st report of injury nor investigation accomplished. We have nothing to defend our company, because we were not involved.

There may be a statue of limitations and I hope we win.

PORK

marc

Hi Judy,

Yes, state law specific as others have noted.

In Nevada, you must have a poster up with the details.

The EE must give written notice of the accident or injury as soon as possible, but no later than 7 days.

To file the medical treatment/cost claim, the EE has 90 days.