Workers’ Compensation Benefits in Maryland
The basic types of workers’ compensation benefits that are available in Maryland are vocational rehabilitation benefits, compensation for funeral expenses, wage reimbursement benefits, medical benefits (i.e., having your medical treatment and physical therapy paid for), and disability benefits, which are intended to compensate you for the time that you are out of work as a result of your workplace injury.
These disability benefits are referred to as Temporary Total Disability, Temporary Partial Disability, Permanent Total Disability, and Permanent Partial Disability. If you are filing a workers’ compensation claim or feel you have been denied unfairly, contact an attorney.
Defining a Valid Workers’ Comp Claim in Maryland
A claimant will not be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits if he or she is actually an independent contractor. If you are an employee, by law, an employer is required to maintain workers’ compensation insurance for all employees. Therefore, the first analysis is to determine whether you are an employee or an independent contractor.
The other analysis is whether you sustained an injury while you were working and whether the injury was sustained in the scope of the employment as defined by the three-pronged definition necessary for there to be a valid workers’ compensation case (i.e., that you’re an employee who sustained (1) an accidental injury, (2) arising out of, and (3) in the scope of your employment). If coverage is denied, issues may be filed with the Commission.
Filing a Claim
In Maryland, there is a claim form that you need to complete that essentially asks for some basic information, including:
- Background information
- What is being claimed
- What parts of your body were injured
- What your doctor’s name is
- How serious the injuries are
- How the injury occurred
It is preferable to have a Maryland lawyer complete and return this form to ensure that it’s accurate, that it complies with the statute, and that it fits within the three-pronged definition. This will help ensure that you receive all of the workers’ compensation benefits you’re entitled to under Maryland law.
Workers’ Compensation and Unemployment Insurance
An individual cannot receive workers’ compensation as well as unemployment insurance. If you are making an application for unemployment benefits, you must be ready, willing, and able to work. When you are filing a claim for workers’ compensation benefits in Maryland, and you are not able to work and are seeking temporary total disability while you are medically unable to work, then you cannot also receive unemployment benefits.
Permanent Partial Disability
In terms of the potential benefits that a person can get under Maryland workers’ compensation law, some of those benefits involve permanency. Permanency is the permanent impairment to a specific body part. If that is the case, Permanent Partial Disability, under Maryland statute, equates to a certain number of weeks of compensation based on the percentage of disability to the injured body part or the body as a whole. The value of a person’s workers’ comp benefit is determined by multiplying the number of weeks of compensation by 2/3 of the individual’s average weekly wage. So, Permanent Total and the Permanent Partial disability benefits allow you to be compensated into the future for your on-the-job injuries
Determining Level of Impairment
Whenever permanency is at issue, the claimant has a rating done to determine their level of impairment by a doctor of the claimant’s choosing. The rating is established in terms of the percentage of impairment to the injured worker’s body part or whole person.
The employer-insurer (IME) will typically send the person to a doctor of the employer-insurer attorney’s choosing as well. That doctor will perform a rating exam and provides a competing rating—usually a much lower rating. What often happens when settling cases or when going to the Commission for a nature and extent hearing is that the two sides negotiate between the two rating percentages. For example, if the claimant’s doctor says 20% whole person impairment and the IME doctor says 10%, the parties advocate to closer to their percentage rating.
Resolving Permanency Issues
If the permanency issue cannot be resolved, then a Commissioner has to decide the case, and each party’s attorney must argue for their rating to resolve the case. In either case, this final (or agreed-upon) percentage is multiplied by a corresponding number of weeks of compensation for the injured body part(s), which is then multiplied by 2/3 of the average weekly wage to come to the full value for the entire case.
For example, if someone sustains a work-related shoulder injury, the total compensable number of weeks is 500 weeks. If the parties agree or a Commissioner finds (at the nature and extent hearing) that the worker sustained a 10% whole person impairment to the shoulder, that translates into 50 weeks of compensation, which is then multiplied by 2/3 of the average weekly wage to get the full value for the case.
Role of a Maryland Attorney in Obtaining Workers’ Compensation Benefits
The first thing an attorney will do is file a claim and issues with the Commission if there is any dispute as to coverage. Issues can be filed, such as when there is a dispute as to average weekly wages, the amount of the Temporary Total Disability payments, permanency (i.e., nature and extent of injury), or whether or not an injured worker sustained an occupational disease arising out of and in the course of his/her employment. When you file issues with the Commission, the matter is set in for a hearing, the lawyer and client go appear, the attorney for the employer-insurer appears, and the Commissioner makes the decision and resolves the pending issue(s) by entering and mailing an order a number of weeks after the hearing.
Call our firm to learn more about how a lawyer could help you obtain workers’ compensation benefits in Maryland.
