If you are hurt at work or suffer a work-related illness, it is crucial to report your injury or illness to your employer immediately [1]. Failure to notify your employer can cause any workers’ compensation benefits [2] to be delayed or denied.
Why is it important?
If you suffer from a work-related injury or illness, you will require medical care. Those medical expenses are the responsibility of your employer. Depending on your employer you may be required to see certain medical providers for evaluation as part of your workers’ comp claim. This is true even if you have health insurance.
When should I report my injury?
In Pennsylvania, you must inform your employer of an injury no later than 120 days after the injury. But sooner is better. Your employer is entitled to investigate whether your injury is work-related and that investigation cannot begin until they have notice of an injury. No compensation is due through the workers’ compensation program until the employer receives notice of the injury.
How should I report my injury?
When reporting your work-related injury or illness to your employer, a conversation is acceptable, but an email or text is preferable because you want to have evidence that you reported the injury. Tell your employer that you were injured at work and include the date and place of injury. The employee or someone acting on their behalf can report the injury.
Once you report the injury to your employer, the workers’ comp insurance provider has 21 days to acknowledge your claim. Your employer has up to 90 days following the injury to either accept or deny the claim. If your claim is denied or partially accepted, you have the right to file a petition requesting a hearing before a workers’ comp judge.
If your employer has denied or partially accepted your claim, contact Aversa & Linn to discuss your options.
Does Meredith need to inform her employer of her injury?
To understand giving notice, let’s look at the “Fun Run” episode of The Office as an example. The boss of the office, Michael Scott, is driving to work. As he turns into the parking lot, he looks away from the road for a few seconds until BAM! He hits something, and we see the body of Meredith (an employee) hit the windshield, then roll off the hood of the car onto the ground.
In this scenario, can we assume that Michael has been informed of Meredith’s injury?
Well, he is a representative of the employer, Dunder Mifflin, and he clearly knows that there was an accident. In fact, he reports details of Meredith’s injury to the rest of the staff:
Michael: Ladies and Gentlemen. I have some bad news. Meredith was hit by a car.
Jim: What?
Dwight: Where?
Michael: It happened this morning in the parking lot. I took her to the hospital, and the doctors tried to save her life. They did the best that they could… And she is going to be OK.
Stanley: What is wrong with you? Why did you have to phrase it like that?
Oscar: So she’s really going to be fine?
Michael: Yes. She has a slight pelvical fracture, but, ah… people have survived far worse.
Pam: Thank God you were there.
Michael: Yeah.
Andy: Did you see who did it?
Dwight: No need we can just check the security tapes.
Michael: Gah. Kind of a good news bad news there. I was able to be on the scene so quickly because I was in the car that hit her.
Jim: Who was driving?
Pam: Oh, Michael.
So Michael knows there was an accident, he knows Meredith was injured. Should Meredith still report the incident?
Yes. She will want to report the incident, to make sure there is a written record, and to record any details about what happened.
If you have been injured at work, or are suffering from a work-related illness, contact Aversa & Linn. We can guide you through all the steps of a workers’ compensation claim, from reporting to your employer, all the way through a hearing and an appeal if necessary.
We can help you obtain the compensation you deserve.
[1] In occupational disease cases, injury/disability must occur within 300 weeks from the date of last employment in an occupation in which you had exposure to a hazard, and a petition must be filed no later than three years from the date of injury/disability.
[2] Learn more about workers’ compensation claims from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry
