Archives for October 2016

October 20, 2016 By Leave a Comment

will-the-company-doctor-be-honest-with-you

In many states, an injured worker has the right to choose who will be his or her treating physician. That’s not the case in New Jersey, though. Instead, your employer can choose who will examine you and often who will treat you. That begs the obvious question—if the doctor is handpicked by your employer, can you trust that you’ll get a fair shake? The good news—most often the answer is “yes.”

The Doctor’s Professional Obligations

Your treating physician, as a medical professional, has certain ethical obligations. One of the most fundamental is the priority of the doctor-patient relationship. What does this mean? First of all, it means that the doctor’s primary duty is to you, the injured party—not to your employer. If your physician violates that trust in any way, by failing to acknowledge the severity of your injury, or by providing any false information that benefits your employer, he or she can be subject to professional discipline, including the loss of the right to practice. Because of the potential for sanctions, most medical professionals take their responsibilities seriously.

So what can you do if you suspect that your company-selected doctor is wrongfully dismissing your injury claims? You do have the right to seek a second opinion. However, unless you choose a doctor who is approved by your employer, the costs of that visit will probably not be covered and your employer may ignore any finding. If you do choose an approved physician, who makes a different diagnosis than the first doctor, you’ll likely have to go to a third doctor to have the matter resolved. The matter can get complicated in a hurry. That’s why it’s really in your best interests to hire competent legal counsel early in the workers’ compensation process.

Contact Us

At Taylor & Boguski, we bring more than 70 years of combined legal experience to people throughout New Jersey. For a free initial consultation, contact our office online or call us at 856-200-8989.

Filed Under: Medical Malpractice, Workers Compensation Tagged With: , ,
October 5, 2016 By Leave a Comment

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If you have been in a work-related motor vehicle accident and you file a third party claim for injuries suffered in the crash, your company’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier may be entitled to a portion of any recovery you receive in the personal injury lawsuit, if you also received workers’ compensation benefits. A New Jersey appellate court came to that conclusion in August, 2016.

In an appeal that consolidated claims from three different insurers, the court was asked to reconcile competing provisions of two New Jersey statutes: the Workers’ Compensation Act and the Automobile Insurance Cost Reduction Act. All three cases involved public workers who were hurt on the job and who had recovered damages in personal injury actions for medical expenses.

At the trial level, all three courts held that workers’ compensation insurance companies could not seek reimbursement of medical expenses in such occasions, as the Automobile Insurance Cost Reduction Act prohibits reimbursement of medical expenses collected or paid under personal injury protection (PIP) policies. The trial judge concluded that, because an injured employee in a work-related accident is treated as a “no-fault” insured, the worker can’t recover medical expenses from the defendant if those medical expenses have been paid by an insurance company—that would be a double recovery. The judge concluded that, because the injured party could not recover medical expenses, the damage award could not and did not include compensation for medical expenses, so that workers’ compensation insurance company had no basis for reimbursement.

The appellate court disagreed, finding that the Automobile Insurance Cost Reduction Act seeks to minimize insurance costs by guaranteeing medical expense coverage. Since the recovery could include reimbursement of medical expenses, and since the Workers’ Compensation Act allows a workers’ compensation insurance provider to seek reimbursement of any medical expenses paid, the requests of the insurance companies were permissible.

Contact Us

At Taylor & Boguski, we bring more than 70 years of combined legal experience to men and women throughout New Jersey. For a free initial consultation, contact our office online or call us at 856-200-8989.

Filed Under: Insurance, Personal Injury, Workers Compensation Tagged With: