Financial Benefits You Can Expect From Iowa Workers' Compensation.

Aside from the right to medical attention, an injured worker may also be entitled to four different forms of financial benefits: temporary total disability, temporary partial disability, permanent partial disability, and total disability. Your situation will determine which kind of Workers’ Compensation payments you are entitled to. Your historical earnings will determine the weekly benefit amount.

Total Temporary Disability.

You are eligible for temporary total disability (TTD) payments if a doctor designated by your employer forbids you from working for longer than three days as a result of your accident. Even though the three days off employment are not consecutive, this still holds true. The doctor may occasionally state clearly, "No work." Sometimes a doctor will place limits on a patient's care that the company cannot meet.

When you have missed more than three days due to the doctor's limitations, the company or its insurance provider should send you weekly checks for workers' compensation. This reimbursement should continue until either you are able to work again or are discharged from the hospital.

Partial Temporary Disability

When your employer hires you back after an accident or when you earn less on "light duty" than you did before your injury, you are eligible for temporary partial disability (TPD) compensation.

For instance, you can be given fewer hours or lesser hourly pay than you were before the job injury. Additionally, if you regularly worked hours of overtime before your accident but are only permitted to work 40-hour weeks. As a result, you might be eligible for TPD benefits.

Partial Permanent Disability

You may be eligible for permanent partial disability (PPD) compensation if you finish your medical treatment but have not entirely recovered from your injury. The employer's doctor should examine if you are still experiencing symptoms or limits as a consequence of your injury so that they can determine your level of functional impairment. Contact a lawyer if your employer or insurance provider refuses to assess your functional impairment.

Employers and insurance providers typically base PPD compensation on the functional impairment rating provided by the patient's doctor. You might not be entitled to the full amount of compensation indicated above.

Absolute Disability

You may be eligible for total disability benefits if your work accident prohibits you from returning to a full-time job. If so, you should be compensated each week for the remainder of your life. Employers and insurance providers, however, never offer this compensation freely.