Hurt Back And Getting Run-A-Round

[Leah_Corona]

Hello, my husband recently sprained his back at work. He was picking up very heavy metal off the ground with help from another worker. He felt a pinch in his back but not too severe so he didn't say anything being it was 15 minutes till work was over. An hour later at home it got so bad he could barley move. The next morning he called in to work and told him he was not going to be able to come in. That he had hurt his back at work. The supriviser told him he was going to have to go to thier doctor and have it checked out. He went it he had a lumbosacral sprain and he had many limitations to work. In other words he could not work because they had no work for him being that he is in the trade show industry. Now he started a claim for Workmans Comp. And his company is trying to say he could not have hurt his back doing what he was doing. Now they are trying to say there is a 90 day hold on his claim because further investigation needs to be done. What do we do? He has been out of work for 4 weeks and my question is why is this taking so long and is their anything we can doing to speed up the process?

L. Corona

 

[Beth3]

His employer is obligated to file a worker's compensation claim with their WC insurance carrier. It's not clear from your post whether they have done that or not.

The WC carrier and employer investigating the claim before determining whether they are liable for the injury is standard practice however. Fraudulent WC back injury claims are made all the time. You and your husband may know that's not the case here but the employer and the WC carrier don't. The WC carrier will need to review your husband's medical records from the physician currently treating him, any pertinent medical records from doctors who previously treated him for back or related problems (if any), and also determine whether it's feasible that his job caused the injury, whether there were any witnesses, etc. This all takes time.