How Long Can You Be on Workers Comp?
How Long Does Workers Comp Last? The Answer Depends on Many Factors.
Workers compensation provides cash payments and medical treatment to employees who suffer work-connected bodily injuries or contract occupational illnesses and diseases.
These workers compensation benefits should last as long as you have a disability from work or need medical care for the injury or sickness.
But they do not last that long in some states.
Indeed, many states cap how long workers comp lasts, regardless of the time it takes for you to heal and recover from the mental and physical damage.
For example, some states use your date of maximum medical improvement (MMI) to determine how long workers comp lasts. Other jurisdictions use your age.
This article explains how long you can stay on workers comp, focusing on Virginia. The answer depends on the body parts injured, the level of permanent impairment (as a percentage rating), and the type of benefit sought.
Keep reading to learn about how long you can collect workers comp. The article explains how long you can draw specific benefit types and when they end. Understanding these rules helps calculate a reasonable payout in a workers comp settlement.
Then call us at 804-251-1620 or 757-810-5614 if you need help with the claims process.
Or review our other articles if you are an injured worker or car crash victim who wants to scare the insurance adjuster into a better offer.
The Length of Workers Compensation Varies from State to State
Each state has a unique workers comp scheme.
Similarities exist between the jurisdictions. But there are differences.
The length of time you can receive workers compensation benefits is one area where state systems vary.
One size does not fit all.
How Long Can You Get Workers Compensation in Virginia?
The general rule is that you can get a maximum of 500 weeks of workers compensation indemnity benefits in Virginia per accident.
This cap applies no matter how many initial injuries, psychiatric conditions (PTSD, depression, and anxiety), and compensable consequence injuries you suffer from the incident.
No such time limit on benefits applies to medical treatment for occupational injuries and illnesses.
Indemnity benefits include the following items:
- Permanent partial disability benefits for loss of use of the injured body part, vision, hearing, or scarring and disfigurement.
But there are exceptions to this limit on work comp payments, as well as more caps on damages.
Indeed, five statutes govern how long you can collect workers comp in Virginia:
- Code Section 65.2-518
- Code Section 65.2-503
- Code Section 65.2-504
- Code Section 65.2-512
- Code Section 65.2-603
The following sections explain when each of these laws applies and what they say about how long workers comp may last for you.
This article discusses these exceptions in later sections.
The 500-Week Limit on Total Payments for Wage Loss and Partial Disability
Virginia Code Section 65.2-518 controls the total length of payment of wage loss benefits to injured workers.
This statute puts a 500-week limit on total compensation unless specific exceptions apply:
- Death benefits for fatal work injuries
- Permanent and total incapacity
This article discusses the exceptions in later sections.
Am I Guaranteed to Get the Maximum Weeks of Workers Comp Benefits Available?
No.
You will not receive the maximum weeks of workers comp available automatically – even if you have an Award Letter.
Indeed, only a small percentage of employees collect the full 500 weeks of payments in Virginia.
Your employer’s insurer will look for ways to stop workers comp early. For example, any of the following situations may permit the insurance company to stop indemnity payments:
- Your doctor restricts you to light duty, and you start a job within these restrictions.
- An Independent Medical Evaluation (IME) doctor says you can return to your pre-injury job. Or the IME physician may say you are disabled, but that your condition is unrelated to the work accident.
- You refuse to cooperate with medical treatment or vocational rehabilitation efforts.
Hiring a workers comp attorney early in the process (for example, before you file a claim for benefits) can help you manage and avoid these situations so you can receive workers comp longer.
Will Workers Comp End if I Reach the Limit on Weeks of Benefits but Still Have a Disability from the Injury?
Yes, unless you qualify for permanent and total incapacity benefits, as discussed below.
Non-medical workers comp benefits will end when you collect 500 weeks of payments.
The checks will stop even if you remain unemployed because of the work-connected disability.
We recommend applying for Social Security disability benefits if you find yourself in this situation. Indeed, we usually recommend applying for SSDI even sooner.
You can learn more about Social Security disability law in Virginia here.
Do Cost of Living Adjustments Count Against the Benefits Cap?
No.
You will likely get a yearly cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that boosts temporary total disability payments.
Inflation levels determine the amount of COLA increase.
Only those receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and workers comp concurrently may miss the COLA.
The increase in TTD does not count against the 500-week limitation on total compensation.
COLA does not apply to temporary partial and permanent partial disability benefits.
Is a Limit on the Number of Weeks of Workers Comp You Can Receive Constitutional?
Yes – to an extent.
Courts have held that limits on the number of weeks you can collect workers comp are constitutional.
For example, the Virginia Supreme Court has held, “[t]he right to compensation under the workmen’s compensation law is granted by statute, and in giving the right the legislature had full power to prescribe the time and manner of its exercise.”
But attorneys and claimants have challenged the limits on how long you can collect workers compensation in at least one other state.
For example, in Florida, the state’s highest court found the 104-week cap on temporary total disability unconstitutional.
We will see if employees in other states challenge the constitutionality of these weeks’ caps in the upcoming years.
Exceptions to the 500-Week Limitation on Work Comp
The following sections explain when longer or shorter limits on how long workers comp lasts may apply to your case.
Did You Suffer Severe Permanent Impairment to Multiple Body Parts or Amputation in the Same Accident, Traumatic Brain Injury, or Paralysis?
You can receive more than 500 weeks of temporary total disability if you prove the following:
- Traumatic brain injury (head trauma/concussion, skull fracture, post-concussion syndrome, etc.) rendering you permanently unemployable in gainful employment, or
- Loss of both hands, both arms, both feet, both legs, both eyes, or any two of these body parts from the same accident or as a compensable consequence of an injury suffered in the original accident or
- Total paralysis (such as from a spinal cord injury)
These ongoing payments, also called permanent total disability, continue for the rest of your life.
How Long Do Permanent Partial Disability (PPD) Benefits Last?
You can receive compensation for permanent loss of (amputation) or loss of use of specific body parts under the Workers Compensation Act, so long as you have stopped collecting temporary total disability.
How long these permanent partial disability benefits last depends on the body part injured and the permanent impairment rating assigned by your attending physician.
Here is how long workers comp can last for the loss of use of these specific body parts:
- Thumb: 60 weeks
- Index finger: 35 weeks
- Second finger: 30 weeks
- Third finger: 20 weeks
- Little finger (pinky finger): 15 weeks
- Big toe: 30 weeks
- Other toes: 10 weeks
- Hand: 150 weeks
- Arm: 200 weeks (such as from a rotator cuff tear to the shoulder or cervical radiculopathy from a neck injury)
- Foot: 125 weeks
- Leg: 175 weeks (such as from a total knee replacement, torn meniscus, or an ACL tear)
- Total loss of vision: 100 weeks per eye
- Total hearing loss: 50 weeks per ear
- Disfigurement: 60 weeks (such as from a burn injury)
How Long Does Workers Comp Last for Coal Worker’s Pneumoconiosis?
Code Section 65.2-504 governs how long you can get indemnity benefits for coal worker’s pneumoconiosis.
Under this law, an employee with coal worker’s pneumoconiosis may receive fifty to three hundred weeks of workmans comp payments.
Where you fall in this range depends on the disease’s stage.
Is There a Cap on the Length of Death Benefits?
Yes, there is a limit on how long workers comp lasts in death claims.
Code Section 65.2-512 controls compensation to the dependents of employees killed at work.
Under this statute, you may collect benefits for 400 to 500 weeks.
Where you fall in this range depends on your relationship to the deceased worker, other beneficiaries, and level of financial dependence.
Are There Time Limits on Medical Treatment Related to the Work Injury?
Virginia has no cap on medical treatment for work-connected injuries and diseases.
Code Section 65.2-603 says your employer must furnish medical care for as long as necessary after a work accident.
Necessary medical treatment includes palliative care (such as chiropractic treatment, epidural steroid injections, physical therapy, etc.). This care refers to treatment that relieves pain and other symptoms even if you have reached MMI.
The definition of medical care also includes dentures, prosthetics, orthotics, and artificial limbs.
Also, there is no limit on how much your employer may have to pay for necessary medical care for a work-related injury or illness.
You can learn more about these lifetime medical benefits here.
Be careful, however, if your claim arises in another state.
Some jurisdictions limit how long you can receive medical treatment under workers comp. For example, your state may stop medical benefits when your doctor declares MMI.
How Long Can I Receive Home and Vehicle Modifications under Workers Comp?
Employers must pay for automobile modifications and equipment if these items are causally related to loss of function of the extremities (arms, hands, feet, or legs).
Similarly, employers must pay for home modifications prescribed by your attending physician. Such items include ramps, handrails, doorway alterations, bedside lifts, and adjustable beds.
The Workers Compensation Act does not put a time limit on how long you can get this equipment.
Instead, it provides a total cap of $55,000.
If you hit this cap, the employer no longer has to pay for home or vehicle modifications related to the occupational injury or illness.
Get Help with Your Workers Compensation Claim
You were hurt helping your employer’s interests.
Yet your employer and its insurer or claim administrator (Sedgwick, Gallagher Bassett, ESIS, CorVel, etc.) do not have to help you determine what benefits you can collect or how long you can get them.
Indeed, the insurance company may try to end your workers compensation benefits before you reach the limit allowed by law.
But you do not have to accept these tactics.
Instead, contact a top-rated work injury attorney. With offices in Richmond, Newport News, Baltimore, Cambridge, and Hagerstown, we can help you no matter where you live or work.
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