If you are receiving benefits from your employer's workers' compensation insurance company, those benefits may have an effect on other insurance and governmental benefits you receive — and vice versa. Understanding the effect that your workers' compensation benefits may have on your other benefits is very important, especially if you are considering a settlement of your workers' compensation case.
At Spooner & Perkins, P.C., our firm has been protecting the rights of injured workers for more than 55 years. If you have been injured on the job, we offer a free initial consultation to discuss how workers' compensation benefits interact with other benefits you may receive. Our attorneys represent injured workers throughout the Kansas City metro area and rural Missouri and Kansas.
The following are examples of benefits that may be affected if you are receiving workers' compensation benefits:
- Unemployment compensation: If you are receiving unemployment compensation benefits, you are not eligible for temporary total disability benefits from the workers' compensation insurance company. You are prohibited from receiving both benefits at the same time.
- Medicare: Medicare is a complex system with ever-changing rules and regulations. If you are a Medicare recipient or may be covered by Medicare in the future, your workers' compensation settlement could greatly affect your Medicare benefits. It is important that we notify the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services before you accept a settlement of your workers' compensation claim. The workers' compensation... You may be required to establish a Medicare Set-Aside Trust.
- Social Security Disability: If you are unable to return to any type of work, you may be eligible for Social Security Disability Income benefits. Your workers' compensation benefit may reduce the amount of money you receive from Social Security.
- Subrogation: If a negligent third party has caused your work injury, your employer and the workers' compensation carrier may be entitled to recover a portion of any personal injury settlement you receive from the third party. The most common example of this situation is when you are involved in a motor vehicle accident while working. If the motor vehicle accident was caused by a negligent driver, you likely have a case against that individual in addition to your workers' compensation case.
- MO HealthNet payments: If you received medical care through MO HealthNet, you may be required to reimburse MO HealthNet from your workers' compensation settlement.
- Child support: If you are required to pay child support and are behind on your payments, a portion of your workers' compensation settlement may go to the Division of Family Services and from there to the person who receives your child support payments.
- Missouri Second Injury Fund: If you have a pre-existing condition that was made worse by a work injury, you should not settle your workers' compensation claim without legal advice. You could jeopardize your claim against the Second Injury Fund.
Contact Our Missouri Workers' Compensation Lawyers
Free initial consultation: Contact our Kansas City lawyers today to discuss how workers' compensation affects other benefits. You can reach us by phone at 816-298-0580 or toll free at 866-548-6980 and via e-mail. We are paid on a contingency fee basis so you don't pay anything unless we win a settlement for you.
Servicios de traducciones disponibles.
