Once an injured employee reaches "maximum medical improvement" or "M.M.I.," his or her eligibility for temporary benefits ends, and the eligibility for three (3) different types of permanent benefits, impairment, supplemental and permanent total disability begins.
Impairment Benefits:
These benefits are payable once an injured employee has reached M.M.I., and has been assigned a permanent impairment rating of less than 10 percent to the body as a whole. Specifically, the injured employee will be paid three (2) weeks of impairment benefits for each percentage of impairment assigned by a physician authorized by the workers' compensation carrier/servicing agent. For example, if an injured employee is assigned a permanent impairment of 10 percent to the body as a whole, he or she will be paid 20 weeks of impairment benefits, typically on a bi-weekly basis. These benefits will be paid regardless of whether the injured employee is working or not, but at a rate which is equal to 75% of his or her T.T.D. compensation rate. The number of weeks goes up to 3 weeks for impairments between 11% and 15%, and 4 weeks for impairments between 16% and 20%.
Supplemental Benefits:
These benefits are payable once the injured employee reaches M.M.I. and is assigned a permanent impairment rating to the body as a whole of 20 percent, or greater. They are paid at a rate equal to approximately 80 percent of the difference between the injured employee's pre-injury A.W.W. and his or her post injury income. To receive these benefits, the injured employee must be earning less than 80 percent of his or her pre-injury A.W.W., and making a documented, good faith effort to find employment within the assigned medical restrictions. An injured employee's eligibility for temporary benefits, impairment benefits, and supplemental benefits, terminates 401 weeks from the date of injury.
Permanent Total Disability Benefits:
In case an injured employee's disability is adjudged to be permanent within the definitions set forth in the Workers' Compensation Law, he or she will receive benefits equal to 66 2/3 percent of his or her A.W.W., during the continuance of such total disability or until the Claimant reaches the age of 75 (unless the accident occurred after the claimant was 70). In addition, the injured employee will receive additional weekly compensation benefits equal to 5 percent of his or her weekly compensation rate, multiplied by the number of calendar years since the date of injury. Entitlement to these 5 percent supplemental benefits will cease at age 62.
"What other benefits may I be entitled to as a result of workplace injury?"
If death results from the accident within one (1) year thereafter or follows continuous disability and results from the accident within five (5) years thereafter, the workers' compensation carrier/servicing agent shall pay within fourteen (14) days after receiving the bill, funeral expenses not to exceed $7,500. Also, the decedent's spouse and/or dependent children may receive monetary benefits on a bi-weekly basis, up to a maximum payout, over time, of $150,000. Post secondary educational expenses are recoverable in some circumstances.
The workers' compensation carrier/servicing agent is also obligated to furnish the injured employee with medically necessary treatment as the nature of his or her injury or process of recovery requires.
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