Can You Get Workers’ Comp for Tendonitis or Tenosynovitis in PA?

Tendons are one of the hardest working parts of the body, and they hold your muscles onto your bones.  When tendons get hurt, people can suffer from tendonitis – inflammation of the tendon itself – or tenosynovitis – inflammation of the sheath (synovial membrane) around the tendon.  These injuries can come from acute accidents or repetitive use injuries, making them quite common in the workplace.

Workers’ Comp can pay benefits for tendonitis and tenosynovitis, both of which are common from work accidents and working conditions.  Injuries like tendonitis or trigger finger are some of the highest occurring tendon injuries in certain jobs or professions.  In order to get you the benefits you need, we first need to prove that you got the injury from work and that it keeps you from working at full capacity.

For a free case review, call the Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyers at Cardamone Law by dialing (267) 651-7945.

Tendonitis and Tenosynovitis Explained

Tendonitis and tenosynovitis are both pretty common medical conditions that often overlap and might even appear together.  Tendons – the tissues that hold muscles onto the bones – can be injured, strained, and inflamed from repetitive use, overuse, or acute injury.  In some cases, these injuries might be worse, resulting in a tear, but tendonitis is often serious enough to take you away from work for a bit while you recover.

Tendonitis affects the tendon itself, while tenosynovitis affects the synovial membrane, a thin sheath around the tendon.  Depending on the specific injury, either or both might be inflamed, making these two conditions pretty similar.

In either case, they result in pain, stiffness, tightness, difficulty moving, difficult motor control, and swelling.  In most cases, healing can require ice, rest, painkillers, other medications, and physical therapy, with surgery required in some cases.  The time it takes to heal or get back to normal work tasks will depend heavily on the location and severity of the injury, but a few weeks away from work is likely for many tendonitis issues.

Common examples of tendonitis and tenosynovitis conditions include tennis elbow, golfer’s/baseball elbow, trigger finger, DeQuervain’s tenosynovitis, and rotator cuff/biceps tendonitis.

Getting Tendonitis and Tenosynovitis Covered Under Workers’ Comp in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania law requires all employers to carry Workers’ Compensation insurance to protect their employees in the case of work-related injuries.  These policies must pay injured workers damages for their injury, usually consisting of lost-wage damages to cover 2/3 of what they usually make while they are totally unable to work, plus medical benefits to cover the cost of treating their injuries.  Some workers with certain permanent injuries, lost vision/hearing, and facial scarring get additional damages, too, but that is rare for tendonitis/tenosynovitis cases unless they result in permanent loss of function.  Before you can get benefits, there are two major things you need to prove with the help of our Pennsylvania Workers’ Comp lawyers, plus some other potential legal questions.

Work-Relatedness

For Workers’ Comp to cover an injury, it must be “work-related.”  This means that it has to have occurred during your work tasks.  Many accidents at work are not caused by the specific stressors or your specific job position, and they might occur simply because of conditions at your workplace, which is common in slip and fall cases.  Because of this, many injuries should ultimately qualify as “work-related.”

When it comes to sprains, strains, and pulls resulting in tendonitis or tenosynovitis, injuries can happen in all sorts of work scenarios.  From falls to dropped items to auto accidents to getting a body part caught in a machine, there are countless ways you could suffer one of these injuries in an acute accident.  Additionally, injuries are work-related if they result from repetitive stress or repetitive strain, which is one of the more common ways that tendon and synovial membrane injuries occur.

To prove that your injury was indeed work-related, we will need your testimony, as well as testimony from any witnesses, records from your employer (e.g., accident reports), and any other evidence we can acquire.  We will also need your treating physician or another doctor who has examined you to opine that the injury did indeed stem from work tasks or work conditions.  Strong evidence is especially helpful in cases of repetitive use or repetitive stress because your employer can try to argue away the case by saying the injury stemmed from something you did on your own time or outside of work.  Ultimately, you can still get coverage if both personal and work use might have contributed to the injury, as long as it was still work-related.

Disability

If your injury is disabling enough to keep you from working, you can get wage-loss benefits.  Insurance carriers and employers should cover medical care in any case, so long as the injury was work-related.  However, wage-loss benefits are only available when the injury is sufficiently disabling to reduce the worker’s earning power.

To prove your injury meets these standards, you have to show that the injury stops you from returning to work.  You can get partial disability benefits if the injury allows you to still work at partial capacity or to take on light-duty work while you recover, and you can get total disability benefits if the injury completely keeps you from working.

Wage-loss benefits for total disability are usually 2/3 of your average weekly wage, subject to certain floors and caps.  Benefits for partial disability usually pay 2/3 of the difference between what you made before the injury and what you are earning while working through the injury.

Your ability to get reduced-wage work in a light-duty role at your job depends on your employer’s ability to accommodate your injury and what work is available.  Many tendonitis and tenosynovitis injuries prevent you from working to some extent, but they can be adequately accommodated by having you just avoid some job tasks like heavy lifting.  This might even skip the need for wage-loss benefits.

Because of this, it is important to talk to your lawyer about whether wage-loss benefits will actually be available and to make sure that you have the proper medical evidence and documentation to show the limitations your injury caused you.

Call Our Workers’ Compensation Lawyers Today

For a free evaluation of your case, call Cardamone Law’s Philadelphia Workers’ Comp lawyers at (267) 651-7945.