By: James R. Burn, Jr.

Earlier this year, I posted a caution about the concerns of signing blank medical authorizations for insurance carriers. Another concern is the insurance carrier sending a nurse case manager with you to your medical appointments. Case managers have a reputation for lobbying doctors against work restrictions.

In other words, if a doctor treating you thinks you should be restricted to sedentary work, the case manager may advocate to the doctor that light or medium duty work is more appropriate. This makes it more likely that a case manager and an insurance adjuster will attempt to use these work restrictions to force an injured worker back to work at a job that is beyond their physical restrictions, hampering their recovery and potentially making the work-related condition worse.

Workers who have suffered work injuries simply want to get better. But often they need time to heal so that they can return to being employees as soon as possible. The impatience, and oftentimes shortsightedness, of the insurance company and their adjusters can hamper the ability of an injured worker to go back to work.

Insurance adjusters are trained on the law. They know every twist and turn that can lead the unrepresented, injured worker into pitfalls that they may not be able to get out of, jeopardizing their entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits.

This firm stands ready to assist anyone who feels they are being pressured back to work or their doctors are being pressured to write work releases that do not accurately reflect their level of disability.