[ashleylpn77@gmail.com]

One month ago a car fell on top of my husband from an overhead lift shattering his femur, we are lucky thats the only injury he had emergency surgery the same day. We just got back the xray from dr one month post op and there are bone fragments floating all around his leg and it is a horrible looking xray we would like a second opinion, how do youget a second opinion when your through workers comp? Should we get an attorney? I'm a nurse and I've showed his xray to two doctors who both say he will be crippled and best case scenario walk with a limp. The surgeon told us he needs bed rest for a month to make it heal and supposedly all the bone fragments will fuse together..which isn't what the other doctors said to me..what if he needs additional surgery will workers comp pay for that? Does a lawyer speed up settlement time when it comes to it? It is true a leg is only worth 200 weeks even if you lose it completely?

[Timothy Belt]

Each state has its own laws. In what state is your husband's claim.

[1171]

a patient can always request a referral from their treating doctor.
most states have some sort of medical control regulations that allow the carrier/employer to authorize medical consults.
your husband may be more interested in a change of treating doctors.
if that's the case, then the request will likely have to go the adjuster.
as tim belt posted above, the rules for comp are different for every state.

all treatment related to the injury is covered by comp; many states have a review process for controlling what treatment can be authorized.
whether legal representation will speed up or slow down depends mostly on the atty. In general my experience is that litigation can be very time consuming. often times the worker is willing to put up with the delays as long as they believe they are being treated fairly.

workers comp is very different from liability and civil tort actions as it includes medical as well as disability and is not based on negligence. comp is "no fault" and both the employer and the employee are expected to be responsible for the loss; this limits the employees financial recovery.

each state has different rules and your questions cannot be answered precisely without knowing what state laws apply.

[RootsGal]

(03-03-2016, 10:54 AM)Timothy Belt Wrote: Each state has its own laws.  In what state is your husband's claim.

Ask the treating doctor for a referral to a orthopedic surgeon of your choice.
Each state has a list of "in-network" physicians.
I do not know where you are.
You are allowed to talk to your claim adjuster until you hire counsel, so ask them for the website to the list.

As far as hiring a WC attorney, you do not have to.
Go to your closest WC office and pick up the WC book of laws for your state.
You are a nurse so you will be able to handle this.
The back of the book has a glossary, which makes it easy to find the laws that apply to you.
Write down the law that applies to what is going on, call for a hearing and go for it.
If the injury was accepted you have nothing to fear.

I also use avvo to ask questions about my WC injury.
Its free, you get 5-10 responses in 10 minutes, and they have a specific section for workers comp.

My injury was in 1997, and I still have no attorney. I am NEVER stipping out my injury, because it is too severe.
I use avvo, and I talk to my adjuster all the time. She is not happy that I get advice for free, but I am not doing anything wrong.

Floating bone chips is NOT good. The IME doctors never find in favor of the claimant, so push on and pick your own, unbiased care/second opinion.
I had a WC doctor tell me nothing was wrong so I asked to see another neurosurgeon. Turns out I had a LARGE herniated disc and I needed immediate surgery, back in 1998. The first neurosurgeon found out, and he released me to my second opinion. He felt like a fool once the MRI came back.
I wish you all the best on this journey you are about to begin.
Keep a calm demeanor and make that book your healthcare bible.