Workers’ compensation coverage protects employees who get hurt on the job. Benefits are also available to people with illnesses and medical conditions caused by their employment.
Repetitive strain disorders, like carpal tunnel syndrome, can qualify professionals for benefits if job responsibilities caused those conditions. Even respiratory disorders and cancer caused by chemical exposure on the job could make a worker eligible for workers’ compensation coverage.
Typically, employees can rely on workers’ compensation benefits to provide them with financial support until they recover and return to work. However, some professionals are unlikely to make a full recovery. Repetitive strain injuries and other conditions that cause permanent symptoms may forever affect the injured or sickened worker. In such cases, rules related to maximum medical improvement (MMI) may limit the benefits that a worker receives.
What is MMI?
An employee who has achieved a designation of MMI has usually already undergone treatment as part of a workers’ compensation claim. The physician overseeing their care believes that they have stopped responding to treatment.
A designation of MMI effectively declares that a professional is unlikely to respond in any significant manner to ongoing treatment. If a patient’s improvement plateaus or if treatment ultimately proves unsuccessful, a doctor may determine that they have achieved MMI and may notify the necessary parties about that change in circumstances.
How does MMI affect benefits?
Workers’ compensation can pay for all necessary treatment. However, treatment is only necessary when it is likely to improve a worker’s condition. Once an employee achieves MMI, they may no longer be eligible for ongoing treatment benefits.
They may be subject to in order to return to work, despite their remaining symptoms. In many cases, medical professionals provide information about the worker’s functional limitations and accommodation needs.
Occasionally, workers who achieve MMI need to leave their positions and seek out lower-paying work that does not exacerbate their symptoms. Workers who achieve MMI and must accept a reduction in earning potential may be eligible for permanent partial disability benefits. They may also be eligible for continued medical coverage that pays for symptom management, rather than active treatment.
Professionals in need of medical care and disability benefits often need assistance navigating the workers’ compensation system, and that’s okay. Learning more about the rules that govern benefits can be helpful for those with work-acquired medical conditions.