The Massachusetts workers’ compensation systems offers a variety of benefits for workers who have suffered a job-related injury or disabling condition. Our workers’ compensation attorneys can make sure you get the benefits you deserve for your workplace injury or illness.
For a free case evaluation of your workers’ compensation claim, please contact us online or call us toll free at (800) 367-0871 to speak with an experienced workers’ compensation attorney at Kantrovitz & Associates, P.C. We have more than 20 years of experience fighting for the rights of individuals injured in the course of their employment.
Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the workplace injury lawyers at Kantrovitz & Associates, P.C, help injured workers across Massachusetts, including but not limited to Boston, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Plymouth and Merrimack River. We also represent Rhode Island and New Hampshire residents whose injuries occurred in Massachusetts or who were hired in Massachusetts but who were injured out of state.
Temporary Total Disability Benefits
If you suffer a work-related injury or condition that leaves you unable to work, you are eligible for benefits at the rate of 60 percent of your gross average weekly wage, while remaining above the minimum and below the maximum payments that are set by Massachusetts government each year (more on that just below). Your gross average weekly wage is your actual gross earnings per week, including overtime wages and bonuses. It also includes any wages that you earn from other employers, if you had more than one job when you were injured or became disabled.
Under Massachusetts law, there is a maximum weekly compensation amount that you can receive, which is based on the average weekly wage in the commonwealth at the time of your injury. The amount is calculated and published by a division of the Massachusetts government each year. So even if your average weekly wage results in a total compensation rate that exceeds this maximum amount, this is the most that you will be able to receive. For injuries that happen on or after October 1, 2010, for example, the amount is $1,088.06 per week.
There also is a minimum weekly compensation rate calculated as 20 percent of the state average weekly wage. For claims involving injuries that occurred on or after October 1, 2010, that amount is $217.61, for instance.
An injured or disabled worker who is totally incapacitated can receive this temporary total disability benefit for a period not to exceed 156 weeks.
An incapacitated worker’s benefits begin on the worker’s sixth day of incapacity, unless the disability continues for 21 or more calendar days (and those days do not have to be consecutive). In that case, benefits include the first five days of incapacity.
Partial Disability Benefits
If you can still work after suffering a work-related injury or disabling condition, but you can’t earn as much as you did before the injury or condition, then you are likely eligible for temporary partial disability benefits. These benefits are intended to help while you have a reduced earning capacity. You are eligible to receive a partial disability benefit even if you are required to find a different job with a new employer because your present employer could not accommodate your physical limitations. This could include, for instance, having to take a new job where you earn less, whether because you have a lower pay rate or must work fewer hours.
Benefits for temporary partial disability are 60 percent of the difference between the wages that you earned before and after your accident at work. The amount of benefits, though, cannot exceed the maximum compensation rate of 75 percent of the amount that you would receive if you were eligible for temporary total disability benefits (discussed just above).
For example, if you were receiving $1,000.00 per week on temporary total disability and then took on a lighter duty position earning less money, the most you could receive for partial disability would be $750.00 or 75% of the temporary total disability rate.
A partially disabled worker may receive these benefits for up to 260 weeks, but in some cases the benefits can be extended to 520 weeks.
Permanent and Total Incapacity Benefits
If a work-related injury or condition renders you totally and permanently unable to do any form of work, you become eligible for permanent and total disability benefits.
Benefits for permanent and total disability are two-thirds (66.67%) of your average weekly wage before your injury or illness, based on the 52 weeks before the injury or illness happened. Under commonwealth law the upper limit on such benefits, however, is the maximum weekly compensation rate. Likewise, the lower limit, or minimum amount that a permanently and totally disabled worker will receive, is 20 percent of the average weekly compensation rate in Massachusetts.
If you qualify for permanent and total disability benefits, you can continue to receive them for as long as you are disabled. You’ll also be entitled to annual Cost of Living Adjustments on those benefits.
Medical Benefits
You are entitled to medical benefits in the form of “necessary and reasonable health care services” if your work-related injury or condition requires you to obtain medical treatment, and those benefits will continue for as long as you require such treatment. This is true whether the services are from a hospital or other medical facility, or a specific doctor.
It’s important to note that you do not have to rely on treatment from a doctor assigned by your employer or your employer’s workers’ compensation insurer. Instead, you have the right under Massachusetts law to obtain treatment from the doctor of your choice.
If your employer has what is known as a “preferred provider agreement,” then your employer can require that you see a particular medical care provider for your initial consultation, or first visit. After that, you are free to obtain treatment from the doctor of your choice. Your employer’s insurer, though, has the right to have you visit its own doctor for an evaluation of your condition.
Your medical benefits for a work-related injury or condition include reimbursement for all of your expenses related to medical treatment, including prescription medicine costs and even mileage and parking reimbursement for your travel to and from medical treatments.
Permanent Loss of Function and Disfigurement Benefits
Massachusetts law also provides for a one-time payment of a money benefit if your injury at work caused you to suffer a permanent loss of a particular bodily function, or if you suffered certain types of scarring or bodily disfigurement. Scars, for instance, must be located on your face, neck or hands.
Lost bodily functions can include, for example: partial or total loss of vision in one or both eyes; loss of hearing in one or both ears; and amputation or loss of use of a hand, arm, foot, leg. For other lost bodily functions or senses, you may be eligible for a benefit based on the specific nature of the loss.
Your right to this benefit arises after you have undergone evaluation and treatment and have reached the best outcome that can be expected (also known as your “end medical result”).
The specific amount of the benefit depends on what part of your body is affected, and the severity of the disfigurement or loss of function.
A benefit payment for loss of function and disfigurement is in addition to all other benefits that you might be eligible to receive.
A note about scar-based disfigurement benefits: As of 1991, the eligibility criteria for this benefit was changed so that compensation was available only for disfigurement of a worker’s face, neck or hands, and with a maximum benefit of $15,000. For several years, the Massachusetts Workers’ Compensation Advisory Council has recommended that benefits again be made available for scar-based disfigurement to any part of the body. The Council rightly urges that “the location of scarring on the body is irrelevant and that compensation, with a $15,000 maximum benefit, should be provided to workers who suffer these traumatic, and at times, horrific injuries.” (Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Report of the Council, page 18.) Legislation to make that change has failed to become law during the past three legislative sessions, but a proposed law is again under consideration in the 2011-2012 Legislative Session.
Subsequent Injury Benefits
If you suffer a work-related injury and receive workers’ compensation payments, then return to work for two months or more and re-injure yourself, you will receive compensation at the rate in place at the time of the new injury. If, however, you settled your old injury for a lump sum, then you will be eligible to receive compensation only if it’s determined that your new claim is based on a new injury.
Social Security Disability Benefits
In addition to workers’ compensation benefits that you receive, you may have the right to receive federal Social Security Disability Benefits. This is true when your injuries result (or are expected to result) in your total disability for at least 12 consecutive months.
Vocational Rehabilitation Services
If your injury leaves you permanently unable to perform the essential functions of your job, then you might be entitled to Vocational Rehabilitation. This can include job placement services, and retraining or education for new work, all paid for by your employer’s workers’ compensation insurer.
Once it’s established that you are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits, the Massachusetts Office of Education and Vocational Rehabilitation will determine if you are a candidate for vocational rehabilitation services. If you are identified as a candidate, you’ll be contacted about attending a mandatory meeting, where it can be determined whether or not your case is suitable for vocational rehabilitation.
Survivors’ and Dependents’ Benefits
If a work-related injury or illness results in the worker’s death, the Massachusetts workers’ compensation system provides for certain benefits to the worker’s survivors and dependents. Qualified beneficiaries include the worker’s spouse and children.
A surviving spouse who remains unmarried is eligible to receive a weekly amount equal to 66.67% (two-thirds) of the deceased worker’s average weekly wage, limited to the maximum of the state’s average weekly wage as of the time of the injury or illness. The minimum benefit is $110 per week. Surviving spouse benefits are subject to a cost of living adjustment beginning two years after the date of the worker’s injury or illness.
A surviving spouse also may receive an additional weekly payment for each child, up to a maximum of $150.
Benefits for surviving children are available where the children are under age 18, or full-time students or unable to work due to a physical or mental disability.
In all instances were a worker’s injury or illness results in death, the workers’ compensation insurer must pay burial expenses, up to $4,000.
Injured on the Job? Contact Our Workplace Accident Lawyers
The Massachusetts’ workers’ compensation system is designed to ensure that workers who are injured on the job receive paid medical treatment and compensation for lost wages after being fully or partly disabled for five days or more. The experienced workers’ compensation lawyers at Kantrovitz & Associates, P.C., based in Boston, Massachusetts, can help you obtain your full benefits after a workplace accident.
For a free case evaluation of your workers’ compensation claim, please contact us online or call us toll free at (800) 367-0871 to speak with an experienced workers’ compensation attorney at Kantrovitz & Associates, P.C. We have more than 20 years of experience fighting for the rights of individuals injured in the course of their employment.
Our workplace injury lawyers at Kantrovitz & Associates, P.C. help injured workers across Massachusetts, including but not limited to Boston, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Plymouth and Merrimack River. We also represent Rhode Island and New Hampshire residents whose injuries occurred in Massachusetts or who were hired in Massachusetts but who were injured out of state.
