Accidents happen. All to often, they occur on the job.

Were you in an accident at work? Were you injured in a fall on the job in Nevada?

Important questions

If you have been injured in a fall on the job in Nevada, how serious are your injuries?
How much time will you have to miss at work? When will you be able to go back to work? How are you going to be able to handle your medical bills?

Are the injuries that you sustained in a fall on the job in Nevada going to cause you to be disabled? Will you be permanently or temporarily disabled? Is you disability partial or total? These are important questions for you to consider if you were injured in a fall on the job in Nevada.

Did you file a claim for workers’ compensation benefits when you were injured in a fall on the job in Nevada? Are you aware that you have a “right” to obtain workers’ compensation benefits when you suffer an injury at work?

Required in Nevada

In Nevada, workers’ compensation is referred to as workmans’ comp. Although there are a few employers that are exempt, nearly all Nevada employers are compelled to carry workmans’ comp insurance. This is true even when an employer only has one employee.

Your Nevada employer can get workmans’ comp insurance from Nevada licensed insurance carriers. Your employer can also decide to be self-insured by the Nevada Division of Insurance.

Workmans’ comp is a kind of “trade-off “. By law, your Nevada employer cannot stop you from obtaining these benefits. However, you cannot sue your Nevada employer because you receive these benefits.

Nevada workmans’ comp laws allow you to obtain permanent total or partial disability, vocational rehabilitation, part of your salary while you cannot work, medical treatment for your injuries and benefits to your family should you die from injuries received in an accident at work. However, in order to obtain these workmans’ comp benefits in Nevada, you have to put in a workmans’ comp claim.

Let your supervisor know

When you are injured in a fall on the job in Nevada, you should let your supervisor know about the accident as soon as you are able to. Your supervisor should then give you the forms that have to be filed in order for you to obtain your workmans’ comp benefits in Nevada.

Workmans’ comp laws in Nevada do not permit you to go to your doctor for treatment. If you want to obtain workmans’ comp benefits, you have to be evaluated by an authorized medical provider who is a member of the Panel of Treatment Physicians and Chiropractors in Nevada.

If you were injured in a fall on the job in Nevada and your employer has tried to keep you from filing for workmans’ comp benefits or his insurance company has denied your claim, the attorneys here can help. They will be in your corner and make sure that your rights are protected. The attorneys here will work to see that you obtain all of the workmans’ comp benefits that you have coming to you in Nevada.

Related articles

• Injured By a Fall on the Job in Arizona (usworkerscomp.com)
• Injuries Resulting From a Fall on the Job in Oregon (usworkerscomp.com)
• Injured Because of a Fall at Work in California (usworkerscomp.com)

Hard times are causing states to rethink approaches for funding various workers’ comp funds, and in California, a superior court judge “has ruled that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger illegally furloughed 7,400 employees of the State Compensation Insurance Fund this year,” according to a post at the Insurance & Financial Advisor Web site.

“Superior Court Judge Charlotte Woolard affirmed a prior ruling against the state involving the employees for the “State Fund,” which sells workers’ compensation insurance to employers and uses the proceeds to operate, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The State Fund relies on no funding from the state treasury.”

The IFA post said the ruling would provide “back pay plus interest for the days they missed work,” but a more recent Chronicle story reports the issue is undecided. Explaining that “[t]he ruling came in a case filed by the Service Employees International Union Local 1000, which represents 6,260 fund employees,” the article also says,  “It’s unclear whether employees will be able to collect back pay for the days they were furloughed. The state fund and the SEIU believe the order entitles them to it.

“But, said a spokesman for the governor’s office, ‘The judge did not rule on the issue of back pay. She was silent on the issue.’ ”

A legislative task in Oklahoma recently heard testimony from Nevada officials that changing from a state-operated to a privately operated system has improved rates for businesses in Nevade, according to a CNBC post dated Sept. 2.

“Nevada’s workers’ compensation insurance rates have dropped since that state privatized the agency providing such insurance, Nevada executives told an Oklahoma legislative task force Wednesday.

“The task force is considering privatizing Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation agency, CompSource Oklahoma.”

The change in Nevade came a decade ago, “when it transformed the agency from a monopoly to a mutual insurance agency owned by its policyholders, said Douglas Dirks, president and chief executive of Employers Holdings, Inc.

” ‘Rates have gone down fairly consistently since the market was opened,’ Dirks said.”

Reports from Colorado include descriptions of  a “parade of angry workers [who were] hurt on the job” and subsequently testified in a recent probe of the state-chartered, tax exempt, quasi-governmental agency Pinnacol by a special committee of legislators and citizens.

According to a “Politics West” spot in The Denver Post on Sept. 1, injured workers questioned not only a surplus of coverage denials but also surplus cash reserves, too much spying on claimants and an out-of-touch perks package for agency compensation packages.

“Mike Byrd, hurt in a work-related car accident in 2004, told a special panel created by the legislature about Pinnacol denying treatments and trying to send a company nurse with him to every one of his doctor’s appointments as a ‘spy.’

“Like others, Byrd questioned how Pinnacol, a quasi-governmental agency that was struggling to remain solvent a decade ago, could grow so profitable that it has amassed a $700 million surplus.”

Also on Sept. 1,  the Durango Herald reported: “A former Durango firefighter testified Monday that the state’s workers’ compensation company spied on him and trashed his reputation in the community in an attempt to deny his claim for an injured back.”

Stahl said he was injured twice and Pinnacol paid for the first claim but refused the second. “He finally sold his house to pay for surgery out of his own pocket. Surgery has helped, but he had to retire from the fire department. He became a nurse and now is studying case management for injured workers.”

Both accounts report a few injured workers testified that their cases were handled well by Pinnacol, but the Herald piece ends thusly:

“Stahl said it was inexcusable for the state’s dominant workers’ compensation insurer to spend $143,930 for a luxury suite at Invesco Field, home of the Denver Broncos; a $133,000 trip to the Four Seasons Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz.; and a $2,515 dinner, which included two plates of $144 lobster and three bottles of $115 wine, while workers suffer.

“Pinnacol has defended the expenses as good for morale.”

***************

Have you been injured on the job?

Here’s what to do first.