In Florida, your workers’ compensation medical provider may not willingly offer you the medical care that could make you better.
Many workers’ compensation medical clinics work on a volume practice. They make their money on seeing hundreds of clients in a week or month. They make more on the first office visit and less on each subsequent visit. They have an incentive to make the workers’ compensation carrier happy by sending you, the injured worker, back to work without causing the insurance company to have to pay too much money in medical care. In return, the workers’ compensation insurance company continues to send victims of workplace accidents to their facility.
We see many clients with back injuries, knee injuries, shoulder injuries and more who go weeks or months without MRI’s, referrals to specialists or simply sit without care because their clinic basically blows them off. They see a nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant who runs through the examination, steps out to speak to the doctor who signs off on a diagnosis that typically includes a sprain, a strain or a contusion. However, months later, after finally receiving the appropriate diagnostic studies, the injured worker is finally correctly diagnosed with herniated discs, torn ligaments or fractured bones.
Not all workers’ compensation doctors are like this. Many are caring and concerned practitioners who see what injured workers are forced to endure when injured at work and stuck in Florida’s workers’ compensation system. These doctors are willing to explore every treatment option, every specialty and every method to improve your medical condition. But when you have a doctor that spends no time with you, ignores what you say and blows off your concerns, it is up to you to stand up for your rights and ask for care.
Call (561) 616-3800 to speak with one of the dedicated workers’ compensation attorneys at the Law Offices of Franks, Koenig & Neuwelt for a free and confidential consultation today. We have more than 50 years of combined legal experience helping Florida’s injured workers recover the medical care they deserve.