If you’ve suffered a workplace injury, you may need more than medical treatment. You may need physical therapy. It may be crucial to helping you regain functionality. It can relieve debilitating pain. If you had surgery after your injury, physical therapy may be necessary for your post-operative recovery.
If you’re receiving workers’ compensation for your injury, you may be concerned about whether it will cover physical therapy in addition to your medical bills and lost wages. Typically, as long as the workers’ comp physician who is treating you prescribes the therapy, your workers’ comp benefits will cover it.
In many cases, it’s beneficial to the employer for injured employees to get physical therapy after an injury. It will help in their recovery and rehabilitation and get them as far back to normal physical ability as possible.
As long as the treating physician and your physical therapist continue to deem the therapy reasonably necessary and believe that you can continue to make progress with ongoing therapy, they can likely make a good case for continued benefits. Workers’ comp should typically cover these things as well. Once maximum medical improvement (MMI) is achieved, you will probably no longer be able to get workers’ comp benefits for your physical therapy.
If you are being denied workers’ comp benefits for physical therapy, it’s wise to talk with the physician treating you for your injury. As we discussed in a recent post, when you’re seeking workers’ comp, you need to choose a doctor who’s certified by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) to be your physician of record (POR).
If you are still denied the benefits to which you believe you’re entitled to for physical therapy and/or other care, it may be wise to talk with an experienced workers’ comp attorney.