do I have to file a claim at 3 year ?

[2650llp]

My husband had hip fracture at work on November, 2005. We are in Illinois. Now it is almost 3 years after his accident. During the first 6 months, he received medical treatment and physical therapy. He returned to work after 6 months of injury and the workers compensation insurance company (WCIC) did not pay any bills for his annual exams and further physical therapy after 6 months. We paid the hospital using our regular medical insurance. For this, we have to pay the co-pay and deductions etc. Before my husband injured for a year, the workers compensation insurance company gave us a closing case offer, which is a little more than $20,000. We are not sure if his hip totally healed in that time, so we did not accept the offer. His case is not closed. However, WCIC did not pay medical bill either as you knew.
We heard that if we do not ask either close his case to get lump sum settlement or file a claim to ask his case be opened permanently, we will automatic lost our right to receive benefit. The WCIC of course will not pay the bills related to the injury.
The human resource in his company had a small meeting to discuss his case. My husband was told that he can re-open his case any time in the future. However, we did not see any document. My question is: Is this a legal process?
Now we are really concerned about his case. If we ask my husband’s company to close his case or give him a legal case open document, we worry that my husband lost his job. If we do not do anything, we worry that we lost our benefit automatically and leave us in the situation with no legal protection at all in the future after 3 years of his accident.
If we hire a lawyer to represent us, are we against my husband company? We are afraid to do that because of the current job market situation. And my husband’s injury will make it even harder to locate a new job.
Recently my husband’s company knows that the WCIC did not pay any medical bills related to the injury after half year of the accident, they said that they will help my husband to get his medical bill be reimbursed.
Should we ask close his case to get a lump sum settlement or keep the case open?
I need advice and thank you for your help.

[1171]

you husband is entitled to all medical cared needed for his injury. you and the health carrier are entitled to reimbursement for any that was paid by you.
your husband is also entitled to wage loss benefits if he lost any wages after the injury. You can find out more about additional disability benefits from the handbook
http://www.iwcc.il.gov/handbook.htm

[Bad Boy Bad Boy]

This is no answer I give you, that will say if you do this, or do that, your husband job will then be protected.

If your husband used his health Insurance, the Insurance Carrier then must know this is work related to an on the job injury. Then also, if the health insurance must of been provided a letter stating his Work Comp Benefits were being denied. The health Insurance Carrier then places a Lien on his Settlement to recover their money they spent.

You kept stating things about keeping his case or claim open. I'm confused for it sounds like it was never opened, if they we not paying anything. So what are you going to keep open. Have you ever talked to the Work Comp Claim Adjustor? Not the employer, the Insurance Claims Adjustor? Another thing is, in Illinois, if his case has been filed as a Work Comp claim, he should know that number for the State claim has their own number on it. Cases that run for three years or so, can become what is called Red Lined with Illinois Work Comp Board. You need to be careful of that.

Your talking about how things got paid, and by what Insurance carrier. When he was off work, if off more then 14 days, he should have been paid what is called TTD checks by the work comp Insurance.

I can say this, Illinois Work Comp system has been built up around it's own legal system, meaning to help employ attorneys for injured workers. Trying to combat a system if you don't know all the Rules and Laws is very hard for you to do then.

Remember, your husband job has little protection expect that the employer can't fire him because he became injured is about all.