A Nurse Case Manager at My Doctor’s Appointment?
Posted by Injured Workers Law Firm | Working With The Adjuster/Nurse Case Manager
Oftentimes, workers’ compensation insurance companies will hire a Nurse Case Manager (I use the abbreviation NCM) to attend an injured worker’s doctor’s appointments. While some Nurse Case Managers will be kind and call the injured worker to let them know that they have been assigned to the case and will be attending their next doctor’s …
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Returning To Work On Light Duty Status
Posted by Injured Workers Law Firm | Returning To Work, Workers' Compensation Benefits, Working With A Doctor, Working With The Adjuster/Nurse Case Manager
What It Means When Your Doctor Releases You for “Light Duty” After a Work Injury A work injury prescribed for light duty means you can go back to work. Whether your former employer will make a job available for you may be an issue, and you might want a Richmond Workers’ Compensation attorney to investigate …
Temporary Partial Disability (TPD) benefits are NOT automatic!
Posted by Injured Workers Law Firm | Workers' Compensation Benefits, Working With The Adjuster/Nurse Case Manager
Temporary Partial Disability benefits, or TPD, are wages paid to an injured worker when they are working under light duty restrictions from their doctor and earning less than their pre-injury average weekly wage. However, these benefits are not automatic (unless there is an award order). The injured worker has to send their check stubs in …
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What is a Functional Capacity Exam?
Posted by Michele Lewane | Returning To Work, Workers' Compensation Benefits, Working With A Doctor, Working With The Adjuster/Nurse Case Manager
In some Virginia Workers’ Compensation claim, when appropriate, you may be sent for a Functional Capacity Exam. Not every injured worker will need an FCE but if your doctor or if the insurance company has mentioned this term on, you need to read the rest of this post – and make sure you consult a …
I Just Had My Functional Capacity Exam, Is My Claim Over?
Posted by Michele Lewane | Returning To Work, Workers' Compensation Benefits, Working With A Doctor, Working With The Adjuster/Nurse Case Manager
Not at all! The Functional Capacity Exam (FCE) is an exam where a physical therapist has you do a series of movements and measures your strength and range of motion. This usually means that you have reached a medical plateau and the doctor does not expect any more significant improvement. This DOES NOT mean that …
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I Want an MRI But My Doctor Ordered Physical Therapy
Posted by Michele Lewane | Workers' Compensation Benefits, Working With A Doctor, Working With The Adjuster/Nurse Case Manager
Seeing a workers’ compensation doctor is different than seeing your family physician. When you are injured at work, the workers’ compensation insurance carrier gets to dictate which doctor you see. They give you three doctors to choose from which they have hand picked! I have a lot of injured workers tell me that they feel …
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Why Am I Being Ignored By My Claims Adjuster?
Posted by Michele Lewane | Claim Accepted - Now What?, Claim Denied - Now What?, First Steps, Workers' Compensation Benefits, Working With The Adjuster/Nurse Case Manager
I get so many calls from injured workers who say the workers’ compensation insurance claims adjuster or their “case manager” will not return their calls. Worse yet, many of them tell me that when they do finally get to speak with someone, they are not treated very kindly. It is very sad but if you …
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I Think I’m Being Followed!!!
Posted by Michele Lewane | Returning To Work, Working With The Adjuster/Nurse Case Manager
“Can they do this?” “What should I do?” “This is ridiculous!” These are frequent comments I hear from injured workers who call my office about the possibility of a private investigator following them around. I tell everyone just assume you ARE being followed and behave accordingly. Sadly, workers’ compensation insurance companies are in the business of …
Insurance Adjusters Are Highly Trained Adversaries
Posted by Michele Lewane | First Steps, Working With The Adjuster/Nurse Case Manager
I have been representing injured workers against workers’ compensation insurance companies for the past 20 years. My office has handled hundreds (if not thousands) of cases during this time. By representing hundreds and hundreds of work accident victims over the years, I began to see how the insurance industry deals with victims after they begin …
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How Best to Deal with Nurse Case Managers
Posted by Injured Workers Law Firm | Working With The Adjuster/Nurse Case Manager
Main Takeaways: A nurse case manager monitors your care and reports back to the insurance adjuster. There are several ways to deal with your nurse case manager so you can have the best outcome including: insisting on a private examination by your doctor, not letting the nurse case manager switch your treating physician without your …
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