Your Employee Got Hurt At Work, Now What?
In the state of New York, every employer must carry workers’ compensation insurance to cover injuries sustained at work. For small businesses, the thought of using workers’ compensation insurance is not something they want to deal with. But if you want to handle a situation properly and avoid lawsuits in the future, then you need to have an effective way for handling on-the-job accidents.
Be Prepared To Use Your Workers’ Compensation Insurance
If an injury happened during the course of performing job duties, then that injury must be treated through workers’ compensation insurance. If you try to send your employee to a doctor to use their health insurance and the health insurance carrier finds out the injury happened on the job, then your company could be in a great deal of trouble.
Get Your Employee The Proper Care
The moment your employee is injured, you should either send them to get medical care or have another employee take them immediately. Your workers’ compensation insurance will have an emergency care facility of choice you should use and that is where you should send your employee.
File Paperwork On The Accident
Your insurance carrier will need an investigation report filled out on the accident, and you should have one for your records as well. You can ask your insurance carrier for a form template you can use, or you can have your risk management provider develop one for you. The form should be comprehensive and allow you and the insurance carrier to get a clear picture as to what caused the accident and what injuries were sustained.
Make An Official Claim
Once you have the emergency treatment information and the accident investigation for filled out, you need to file them with your insurance company immediately. Workers’ compensation has its own network of investigators and case managers who will get involved in the process and take most of the administrative part of the injury out of your hands.
Follow Through
While the workers’ compensation system will take the claim on its own, that does not mean you should stop contacting your employee. You should check on your employee regularly to see how they are progressing and talk to them when they come back to work to see if they have any special needs. You should not get involved in treatment process or get involved in talking to workers’ compensation on behalf of your employee. But it will help to improve employee relations if you do maintain contact and check on your employee’s progress.
When your employee is injured at work, you must act quickly and make good decisions. The process should begin and end with workers’ compensation. You should gather all of the information regarding the accident that you can, and submit it to your insurance carrier.
Our business professionals spend a lot time helping clients to develop smooth and effective ways to handle work injuries. Your risk management team should be a resource for you in times like this and help you to get the situation handled properly.