If you get injured or sick and can no longer work, you generally have two main options for financial compensation: workers’ compensation and short-term disability insurance. Both options can compensate you for missing work income, but there are other significant differences between the benefits. A workers’ compensation attorney in Pennsylvania can assess your circumstances and investigate options for recovering compensation after an injury.
Workers’ Compensation
Workers’ compensation insurance is meant to pay medical expenses and partial lost wages after injuries sustained while at work. Workers’ compensation is mandatory in Pennsylvania for any business that has employees. Employers can buy workers’ compensation through a licensed insurance carrier or the State Workers’ Insurance Fund.
After a work injury, workers’ compensation insurance will pay for the following:
- Medical costs. Workers’ compensation will pay for the cost of reasonable medical treatment for your injuries. This includes emergency medical care, surgical services, hospital services, prescriptions, and outpatient rehabilitation.
- Lost income. Workers’ compensation insurance will also cover lost work income due to temporary disability. Workers’ compensation will pay up to two-thirds of your average weekly earnings during the period of your disabilit
- Death benefits. If your loved one has died due to a work injury, workers’ compensation can pay death benefits to the survivors for lost work income and funeral/burial costs.
Short-Term Disability Insurance
Short-term disability is a type of insurance meant to provide replacement income for workers who become disabled in any way. Unlike workers’ compensation insurance, short-term disability insurance is not mandatory for employers. However, employers may provide short-term disability insurance as part of an employee benefits package. To qualify for short-term disability, you must prove you have a covered disability and cannot work at full capacity.
Short-term disability will cover a percentage of your lost income, usually between 40 and 70 percent of your average earnings. The typical policy will pay benefits for between three and six months. The exact compensation rate and payment duration differ depending on the specific insurance policy.
Can I Receive Both?
The good news is that you may be able to receive both workers’ compensation and short-term disability benefits. Even though short-term disability is for non-work injuries, it can apply to work injuries as well. Whether or not short-term disability covers work injuries depends on the specific policy.
This does not, however, mean that you can receive double benefits. Benefits from short-term disability can offset your payments from workers’ compensation, so you do not receive benefits greater than 100 percent of your wages. For example, imagine you are receiving $1,000 a week in short-term disability benefits. You then start receiving $500 a week in workers’ comp benefits. Your short-term liability payments would likely be reduced by $500. You’ll still get the same total benefit but from two sources rather than one.
However, there are benefits to filing both workers’ compensation and short-term disability claims:
- Workers’ compensation claims can take a long time to process, so short-term disability can fill the gap when you need replacement income.
- You can apply for short–term disability coverage if your workers’ compensation claims get denied and vice versa.
Workers’ Compensation Attorneys in Pennsylvania
Regardless of whether you are applying for workers’ compensation or short-term disability to cover your lost wages while you cannot work, you need an attorney by your side. A lawyer from DelVecchio & Miller, LLC, can help with your work injury claim and pursue the financial compensation you need to heal and move forward with life. Contact our offices today to speak to a workers’ compensation attorney in Pennsylvania.