After a work injury, you may be entitled to compensation through your employer’s Workers’ Comp insurance. These benefits can cover nearly any injury that happens in the course of your work, including burns and chemical spills.
For help with your case, always work with a lawyer. Employers and their insurance carriers are often quick to dismiss cases, and getting benefits granted often requires sharp negotiations and working within the Workers’ Comp system.
Call our Pennsylvania Certified Workers’ Compensation Specialists at Cardamone Law for help today: (267) 651-7945.
What Burn and Chemical Spill Injuries Are Covered Under Workers’ Comp?
Workers’ Comp is required to cover a wide range of injuries that meet these requirements, including most work-related burn and chemical spill injuries:
Responsibility
Workers’ Comp is a no-fault system, meaning it covers injuries regardless of cause. That means that it should cover you whether your employer caused your injury, an outside party was responsible, or you caused the injury through your own mistakes.
However, Workers’ Comp does not cover injuries if you caused them yourself through intentional actions, alcohol or drug use, or illegal acts. Otherwise, injuries you cause yourself by accident are supposed to be covered.
Cause and Severity
Burns and chemical spill injuries can range in severity. Whether the source of the burn was heat, electrical exposure, or chemical exposure, it should be covered.
Burns and spills can not only cause the burns themselves, but also lost vision, lost hearing, serious scarring to the face, and loss of limb. These injuries can also lead to “specific loss” benefits under Workers’ Comp.
Work-Relatedness
The key to coverage – besides proving the injury was disabling – is to prove your injury was work-related. This requirement simply means that the injury happened while you were doing job tasks.
Injuries that happen at home or on the weekends do not count unless you were working from home or otherwise performing job tasks when the injury occurred. Even if you are not at your usual place of business, anything during work tasks should still count, such as auto accidents resulting in fires or tanker spills.
While auto accidents and travel for work may count, note that accidents on your normal commute usually do not count for Workers’ Comp coverage.
Disability Benefits Through Workers’ Comp for Burns and Chemical Spills in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s Workers’ Compensation system covers 2/3 of lost wages as long as you continue to be unable to work, subject to caps and floors. If you are working while receiving benefits, they are instead 2/3 of the loss between what you made before and after the injury.
The cap for these benefits is set at the statewide average weekly wage, which is set each year by law. The floor is whichever is lower: half that limit or 90% of your average weekly wage. This means low-wage earners might actually make more than 2/3 of their lost wages.
Before these wages can kick in, you have to be out of work because of the injury for 7 or more days. The first 7 days’ benefits are paid once you reach 14 days of disability.
Benefits for Amputation, Lost Senses, and Facial Burns
As mentioned, additional “specific loss” benefits can be paid for amputation, lost function, lost hearing, lost vision, and substantial facial disfigurement/scars. These injuries are common with serious burns that can cause you to lose fingers or limbs, eyes, and ears, and face substantial scarring.
Each injury listed in the Workers’ Comp Act has a number of weeks associated with it, stating how long these benefits last for. The rate is also 2/3 of your lost wages, subject to a cap at the statewide average and a floor at half the statewide average.
Medical Benefits for Work-Related Burns and Chemical Spills
When you get medical care for your work-related injuries, Workers’ Comp should pay for all of it. This includes everything needed to get you back to work, plus anything to get you to maximum medical improvement (MMI), plus any medical care needed beyond that. Essentially, as long as it takes, any care you need for this injury should be covered.
Violations
Medical benefits can be cut off if you refuse treatment or otherwise violate the rules of Workers’ Comp benefits, such as by skipping required medical exams.
Lump Sums
Instead of getting ongoing benefits paid as the expenses arise, you can also settle your case to get a lump sum to pay for ongoing future care needs. It is important to have our Workers’ Comp attorneys review any settlement offers to make sure there is enough money there to cover ongoing needs.
90-Day Rule
Care must also come from a covered doctor for the first 90 days. Your employer will have a list of providers you can use, and going off list means losing coverage for that care unless you meet an exception:
- Needing a specialist that is not listed
- Getting a second opinion on the need for surgery.
These are common with burns, so make sure to check with a lawyer about whether your care will be covered.
Additional Coverage for Firefighters and First Responders
Burns are common injuries for firefighters and other first responders. Because of this, it is important to note that you may be entitled to more benefits beyond Work Comp.
The Heart and Lung Act and other laws in Pennsylvania provide that injured first responders get additional wage-loss benefits. Instead of being limited to 2/3 of their usual pay, these laws can get injured first responders full wages under a claim through these laws.
However, this only applies to temporary injuries, meaning ones that will allow you to get back to work. Permanently disabling injuries may not get these added benefits.
When to File Your Claim
Work injury claims are usually filed within 21 days, but you technically have up to 120 days to file notice with your employer. Once your claim is denied, you can file a Claim Petition with a Workers’ Comp Judge within 3 years of the initial injury.
Call Our Workers’ Comp Lawyers Handling Burn and Chemical Spill Cases in Pennsylvania
For a free case review, call our Workers’ Comp attorneys at Cardamone Law today at (267) 651-7945.
