Our Workers Compensation Lawyers Explain How Telemedicine Could Affect Your Claim
Your workers’ compensation benefits are your lifeline after being injured on the job.
Until recently, maintaining this lifeline often meant taking regular trips to the doctor’s office, even if your injuries made travel inconvenient or physically uncomfortable. Today, changes in legal guidance give workers’ compensation more flexibility when receiving care at home. However, as commonplace as telemedicine has become, there are still situations that necessitate gathering the sort of evidence that only an in-person visit can provide.
Read more to learn about the use of telemedicine in Rhode Island workers’ compensation claims, or contact a work injury lawyer to schedule your 100% free consultation as soon as possible.
Telemedicine and Your Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Claim
If you’ve been injured on the job in Rhode Island, you may be entitled to receive benefits through a workers’ compensation claim. Depending on the circumstances of your accident and the severity of your injuries, these benefits could include compensation for:
- Lost income
- Ongoing and anticipated medical care
- Physical rehabilitation
- Partial or total disability
If your workers’ compensation case is approved, you will receive about 62% of your average weekly wage until you can return to work. However, you’ll be expected to find a doctor and receive regular care while in recovery. In the past, all physician visits had to be conducted in person, but Rhode Island has since adjusted its workers’ compensation guidance to accommodate telemedicine appointments.
Benefits of Telemedicine for Injured Workers in Rhode Island
Telemedicine appointments are convenient for many reasons. Aside from saving you time traveling to the doctor’s office, talking to a physician on the phone or through your computer poses far fewer challenges for workplace accident victims who are disabled or recovering from serious injuries. Additionally, telemedicine may:
- Reduce medical costs
- Provide faster access to medical care
- Improve recovery times by providing prompt treatment
- Decrease the amount of time you are out of work
- Decrease the workers’ compensation expenses for your employer’s insurer
Understanding Rhode Island’s Limitations on Telemedicine Appointments
Unfortunately, there are times when you may be required to undergo in-person examinations. Although every case is different, you may have a responsibility to go to the doctor’s office in-person if you have an injury or illness that can't be diagnosed or treated without an in-person physical examination or tests. An in-person appointment may provide you with the diagnosis, care, and workers' compensation evidence you need.
If you have been receiving workers’ compensation benefits for three or more months, your employer also has a right to demand that you submit to a physical examination conducted by a physician or rehabilitation counselor of their choosing. You have a right to have your doctor present and are entitled to have a copy of the final reports sent to your workplace accident lawyer.
How to Tell When It’s Time to See the Doctor In-Person
You shouldn’t always wait until you’ve been asked to schedule an in-person appointment with your doctor. If you appeal a workers’ compensation denial or request a redetermination of your benefits, you’ll want to be as prepared as possible.
During the Rhode Island workers’ compensation appeals process, for instance, you’ll most likely be expected to:
- Find out why your application was denied
- File the correct paperwork with the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Court
- Pay court fees and receive a pre-trial conference date
- Gather medical or financial evidence to support your position
- Attend all scheduled hearings and court dates, up to and including trial
Even if you’ve already seen a physician and received an accurate diagnosis, you may need to coordinate with your doctor and workers’ compensation lawyer to determine what went wrong in your initial application. Sometimes, insurance adjusters and trial courts require very specific types of evidence—evidence that may require a physical examination and an affidavit and evidence that you may not know how to obtain or present unless you’ve spent a lifetime researching Rhode Island workers’ compensation laws and legal rulings.