Medical Case Managers
Medical case managers (assist with you getting medical treatment) and vocational rehabilitation professionals (assist with you getting a new job after a work injury) are paid for by workers’ compensation insurance company.
These ‘case managers’ are supposed to be ‘neutral’. Some are. Some are not. Yet, what is more important is to understand that they will generally note EVERYTHING you say into their notes. These notes are sent to the insurance adjuster along with a monthly report that may be used against you to deny your claim, deny treatment you may need, or to otherwise destroy the value of your claim by showing that you are desperate to settle.
What’s important in dealing with medical case managers is that THEY ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS. Speaking to them about personal matters – can and will often be used against you by the insurance company. Their job is to either get you fast treatment or to get you back to work, whether the treatment or the potential jobs are what you want or that may be the best fit for you. This is one of the important reasons to hire an attorney. Our function (an attorney) in this part of a case is to control the flow of information from an injured worker (that may not understand how talking about personal matters may have a bad effect on their case) to the case manager and to the insurance company.
It really is better to have an attorney if you have a serious injury. The longer you go through the system without having someone watching over your case (that truly has your interests in mind), the more damage you are likely to do to many things – such as, your chance to get the treatment you actually want, get a job you want to do, or how much your claim settles for in the end. I believe case managers can be helpful to injured workers, but there are just too many dangers for injured persons speaking with these managers while not knowing that things can or should not be talked about during all the meetings you have with them.
I’ve been doing this 17 years now. This is just one example of the many potential ‘traps’ you could fall into if you choose not to get a lawyer on your side.
I welcome you to call me to discuss your options. 704-334-1312.
Justice Campbell.