You were hurt in a work-related accident. If you returned to the work that you did before you were hurt, then you would experience pain, or your injury might worsen. You don’t want that to happen, but you aren’t completely disabled. You can still do some work.
Iowa workers’ compensation law provides benefits in this type of situation.
Temporary Partial Disability Benefits
If your work-related injury or illness temporarily and partially disables you, then Iowa law encourages you to go back to work even if you can’t return to the same job that you were doing before you got hurt or became sick.
The law recognizes that you may have to take a lower paying job and provides you with some compensation for your reduced pay and coverage for your medical expenses if you are temporarily and partially disabled. The specific workers’ compensation benefits that you may recover for a temporary partial disability include:
- Wage replacement benefits. If you are temporary and partially disabled, then you may be able to return to work, but you may not earn as much as you did before you were hurt or sick. The law encourages you to go back to a lesser paying job rather than not working at all, and the law provides you with 66 2/3 percent of the difference between your average gross weekly earnings before you were injured and your actual earnings while you are temporarily working at the lesser paying job. You can begin receiving these temporary partial disability benefits after you have been impacted by your injuries for at least three calendar days. Your benefits will begin on the fourth calendar day that you can’t work your regular job. If you have to work the lesser paying job for more than 14 calendar days, then you may be able to receive benefits for the first three calendar days also.
- Medical benefits. All of the reasonable and necessary healthcare costs that are required to treat your work-related injury or illness should be covered by workers’ compensation. This includes not only hospitalizations, surgeries, doctors’ visits, and medications, but also transportation to and from your medical appointments. Additionally, in some circumstances, you may receive compensation for lost wages if you have to leave work to get medical care.
Together, the payment of temporary partial disability benefits and the coverage of medical costs can help you during the difficult period of your recovery.
How to Get Temporary Partial Disability Benefits
Iowa law defines what benefits an injured or ill worker may get for being temporarily and partially disabled. However, the receipt of temporary partial disability benefits is not automatic. Your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance company may try to prevent your fair receipt of benefits by:
- Claiming that you are not disabled and that you can go back to your usual job.
- Claiming that your injury did not happen at work and is not work-related.
Insurance companies may use a variety of different tricks to get out of paying workers’ compensation claims. For example, the insurance company may take what you say out of context, use your social media posts against you, or set up surveillance to “catch” you doing things that the insurance company doesn’t think you would do if you were really hurt or sick.
The insurance company is not on your side. Its priority is to maximize profits for its shareholders. The workers’ compensation lawyers of Hupy and Abraham want to make you our priority and fight for your fair benefits if you are eligible for workers’ compensation. Insurance companies know that we go above and beyond the call of duty for each of our clients and that we will fight hard for each client’s fair benefits.
Let us explain how we can help you. Call us or start a live chat with us now if you’ve been hurt at work in Iowa. We will review your case and help you get the workers’ compensation benefits that you deserve.