Treatment for Work-Related Injury Considered Work Time

Crash

Is the employer obligated to pay wages for the time spent going for doctor and therapy appointments for work-related injuries and illnesses, including travel time, if the appointments are during regular working hours? If so, and the services are available after working hours, can the employee be required to go after hours? Does it make a difference who makes the appointment, i.e. the employer, the workers' comp carrier, the treating doctor?

Terri

Crash, I would like to add to your questions: Do we "have to" allow an employee to use their sick time?

HR in Okla

I believe you can require them to schedule appointments after work hours, but that is often impossible. We pay for the time for therapy etc. as an employee relations measure. Letting the employee know you care about their well-being and want to do as much as you can to help them get the best medical care can make the difference in a "medical only" and a "lawyer-involved" worker's comp. case.

Scott38

Crash,

It has been my experience in Texas that the employee, as you described, may be eligible for continued Temporary Income Benefits (TIB) through your workers' compensation carrier. Like you, on several occasions, we have had employees that return from a lost-time injury and go into our restricted-duty program. During this physician monitored convalesce period, the employee can be expected to have occasional doctor's visits such as office visits and/or rehabilitation. The way we have handled such situations is to document the total hours missed each week and submit these hours to our WC carrier. The employee is paid at the TIB rate for the hours missed.

For injuries not as severe (non-lost time) or to supplement a worker's wages during the 7-day waiting period (in Texas) before TIB take affect, our company has an injury pay policy. To relate this to your question, the employee is paid their base rate for time missed (doctor's appointments, travel, etc.) to an amount not to exceed 40 hours per year/injury.