Worker’s compensation benefits in South Carolina have a cap of 500 weeks for most cases (some such as brain injury, paraplegic or quadriplegic have no cap), although how long your particular benefits last depends on your claim and how badly you’re injured. Your employer pays for workers’ compensation insurance, which goes into effect the first day you start working. If you get hurt on the job, workers’ comp covers all necessary medical care, plus a wage replacement benefit so you can pay your bills while you’re out of work recovering from the injury.
Although the workers’ compensation claims process is designed to be fairly straightforward, it’s not uncommon to run into problems securing the benefits you’re entitled to or to run into complications with your employer and/or the insurance carrier after you file a claim. If this happens to you, you should know that you have rights, including initiating legal action, and our Greenville workers’ compensation lawyer can help you assert them.
Calculating the wage replacement benefits timeline for South Carolina workers’ compensation benefits
Per South Carolina workers’ compensation regulations, all your medical care, including treating complications, having surgery, and seeing a specialist, is covered, even if you don’t miss more than a day of work due to your injuries. However, the wage replacement stipend doesn’t begin until you’ve missed at least one week of work due to the injury. You’ll become eligible for wage replacement benefits starting on the eighth day after your accident, but if you end up missing two weeks or more, you’ll receive retroactive pay for all the time you missed, back to the first day.
The wage benefit should last until you are cleared by a doctor to return to work, although the deadline depends on how severe your injury is and whether you need physical or occupational therapy to be able to return to your position.
For example, if you break your ankle and your position requires a lot of walking, you may need physical therapy to help you regain your abilities, even after the cast comes off. Someone with a sedentary office job may be able to return to work sooner and use a wheelchair or crutches as they heal. Still, your employer may be unable to make this accommodation due to the nature of the workplace (like a construction site).
Maximum medical improvement and your return to work
Your workers’ compensation weekly check benefits end when you are able to return to work and maintain work, usually full-time (in some cases, you may receive partial benefits while you work part-time under an impairment restriction). Setting your return-to-work date involves more than “just feeling better.”
Your treating physician will determine what if any restrictions you have and you are then required to provide that information to your employer to set your return date, which depends on when you reach Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI). MMI is the point at which no additional curative care will further improve your condition.
You may reach MMI and still not be in the same condition you were before the accident. Using our broken ankle example, you may have such a severe break that you have nerve damage or may not have the full range of motion that you had before the injury, but there is nothing more that the doctors can do to rectify the condition. In this case, you’d be cleared to return to work in some capacity even though you aren’t back to the condition you were before the accident.
Are you having difficulty getting fair workers’ compensation benefits?
If you’re having trouble getting the full workers’ compensation benefits you’re entitled to, or if your employer is making you return to work sooner than you should, the attorneys at Smith Jordan Law can help you. Call us at (864) 343-2222 for a free consultation.