When it comes to getting worker’s compensation for your work-related injury, some injuries are rarely ever disputed. After all, it is pretty hard to dispute a broken arm that happened on the job while doing work-related activities. However, not all injuries are so indisputable. When it comes to work injuries that are often denied, neck injuries top the charts.
Why do neck injuries get denied so frequently? Well, neck as well as spine injuries are often denied because it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of the pain in the area. Neck pain can stem from a variety of sources ranging from muscle pain all the way down to nerves. However, one common cause of neck pain can also come from degenerative discs in the spine area. This can also lead to denials as worker’s compensation adjusters will like to claim that degenerative discs was a pre-existing condition. Workers need to be sure they don’t let the wool be pulled over their eyes with this trick as you can completely get coverage for degenerating discs.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest causes of worker’s compensation claims denials for neck injuries is because they don’t get reported right away. Often neck pain doesn’t manifest right away after an accident, and most commonly when it does manifest the next day, you just thought you slept on it wrong. As neck pain from an injury goes on, you might just keep blaming it on simple things that will heal eventually like pinched nerves. However, as you keep making excuses to yourself and the pain keeps getting worse, soon you find out that the minor accident that happened at work a month ago is actually responsible for what will be a costly neck injury.
The universal rule of getting worker’s compensation for work injuries is that the longer you wait to file, the more of a chance you have of being denied. So many different things can happen during that time in between the accident and the time you actually filed for worker’s compensation, and that is what claims adjusters will claim. You could just be trying to get them to pay for another accident that caused the injury and has nothing to do with your work accident.
The fact that people often put off reporting their neck injury is one of the major contributing factors in the high denial rate, and workers should never get caught in that trap. This means that after you get in a work accident and even if you just wake up with a sore neck the next day, you need to report it to your supervisor and seek medical attention. Even if you wait a few weeks to officially file worker’s compensation, by reporting it to your supervisor and going to the doctor, you establish a paper trail of the accident so claims adjusters have less of a chance of saying that the work accident was not directly responsible for the injury. Once a paper trail is established, all you have to worry about is denials over the type of neck injury that it turns out to be.
If you have been hurt at work, and especially if you have suffered a neck injury, the worker’s compensation process will be a big challenge. The system is there to protect both workers and their employers, but no one said they needed to make the system simple or easy. This is why you need an experienced worker’s compensation attorney at your side. If you need representation for the worker’s compensation process, contact us today to see what the Law Office of Joshua Borken can do to help you.