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What’s the Difference Between Workers’ Comp and Disability Benefits?
Workers’ compensation insurance helps provide important benefits to employees with a work-related injury or illness. It can help pay for:
- Medical treatment costs
- Disability benefits
- Lost wages from days off from work
- Death benefits
If you’re injured while away from your job and can’t work, you may be eligible for state disability benefits. Workers’ comp disability benefits only apply to injuries or illnesses that your employer is liable for.
Workers’ Comp Disability Rating Scale
Not sure how the workers’ comp disability rating scale works? If one of your employees suffers a work-related injury or illness, the workers’ comp board or department in your state will give them a degree of disability number. This is a percentage to indicate their level of disability and help determine the amount of workers’ compensation your employee will receive to help pay for their medical care.
To assign ratings, doctors refer to the AMA’s “Guide to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment.” Workers’ compensation systems use this guide to accurately rate injured workers. However, these eight states provide their own state-specific guides for assigning impairment ratings:
Any employees who don’t have an injury or illness would get a disability percentage of 0% and receive no workers’ comp benefits. If you have a worker that suffers a very serious injury, they might get a 100% disability rating which would give them a total rate for workers’ compensation.
A total rate refers to the total amount you pay that employee. If they receive a total rate for workers’ comp benefits, they’d get their total allowable weekly wage. For instance, if they have a total rate of $700 and they’re 100% disabled, they’ll receive $700 in payment each week.
As you consider workers’ compensation insurance, remember that coverage rules are different in each state. This makes it important to review and research the laws where you live.
If you need help interpreting a workers’ compensation rating scale chart, our specialists can help. You can contact them at 855-440-1078.
Types of Workers’ Compensation Disability Settlements
To understand workers’ comp disability settlements, it’s important to know the different disability classifications. Each type of workers’ comp disability will result in a different settlement.
There are four disability classifications:
- Permanent partial disability keeps a worker from performing certain work-related tasks. However, partially disabled employees can still perform some other work-related activities.
- Permanent total disability prevents injured workers from doing the work they did before the injury.
- Temporary total disability keeps a worker from performing work-related tasks, but doctors expect them to heal.
- Temporary partial disability refers to injuries that heal over time, allowing the worker to return to their full work capacity.
Other terms doctors use to determine a patient’s degree of disability include:
- Mild, which usually means 25% disabled
- Moderate, which usually means 50% disabled
- Marked, which usually means 67% disabled
- Total, which usually means 100% disabled
While researching workers’ comp, you should know the difference between disabilities and impairments. Disabilities refer to the limits on a worker’s ability to complete work-related tasks. Impairments refer to how the body functions after an injury or illness and can be physical or mental.
The two classifications of impairments are:
- Permanent impairment or being permanently disabled, which means your employee has reached maximum medical improvement (MMI) and isn’t expected to change within one year.
- Temporary impairment, which includes injuries or illnesses that continue to heal over time. In these cases, your employee’s doctor would not tell them they’ve reached MMI.
Doctors can disagree on your employee’s status. When this happens, they may ask to see an independent medical examiner (IME).
Workers’ compensation settlements and rates depend on the type of injury a worker suffers and how it affects them. In some workers’ compensation cases, employees may get a lump sum settlement. In other workers’ comp cases, they may receive weekly benefits. These weekly benefits usually happen when employees suffer an injury that doesn’t allow them to return to work.
Employees can receive workers’ comp and Social Security disability insurance together as long as they qualify for both.
Learn More About Workers’ Compensation Disability From The Hartford
We are experts in workers’ compensation and you can always count on us to be there when you need us most. Our representatives are available to answer questions for you and your employees. They’re also skilled in handling workers’ compensation claims.
Última actualización: 8 de julio de 2022