When a work injury happens, employers are quick to send an injured employee to an "occupational clinic" like Concentra, U.S. HealthWorks, Nova, or Caduceus. According to a 2017 interview with Concentra's chief executive, roughly 1 out of 8 injured workers will be seen at a Concentra practice — yet patients routinely make mistakes before, during, and after their visit that can permanently damage a workers' compensation claim.
We asked experienced Georgia injury attorneys for their opinions on the mistakes that keep workers from getting the best care. Here are the top five.
1.Going to Concentra for a Serious Injury or Emergency
If your work injury is truly minor, an occupational clinic can patch you up and send you back to work. But for serious injuries, many workers' compensation attorneys agree: choosing Concentra is almost never the right decision.
If you need emergency care — a broken bone, torn muscle, amputation, traumatic brain injury, or serious spinal damage — head to the hospital, not an occupational clinic. In a true emergency, the workers' compensation insurer is required to pay for your emergency care at a hospital. Just explain that you had a work accident, put it on your intake paperwork, and list every injured body part. Once you're discharged, you and your attorney can pick an appropriate specialist.
2.Letting the Employer or Insurer Limit Your Care
Before you ever get care at Concentra, the employer or insurer contacts the clinic to identify which injuries are "compensable" — in other words, which body parts the doctors are allowed to treat. Injured workers often don't know care can be limited this way, and are surprised when a doctor refuses to treat certain injuries.
To avoid disputes about what you actually injured, document every single injury. On your accident report at work and on the clinic's intake paperwork, list every injured body part no matter how small, the correct date of injury, and the fact that you were hurt at work. Don't rely on the clinic doctor to document your injuries correctly — they may not, or they may leave off "unauthorized" injuries.
Occupational clinics also tend to provide only the most conservative (and cheapest) care. Some have "treatment protocols" that block critical testing until you've tried cheaper care first — for example, requiring weeks of physical therapy before authorizing a shoulder MRI that could confirm a rotator-cuff tear. If you're still in serious pain and your clinic doctor isn't ordering the testing, referrals, or work restrictions you need, it's time to hire an attorney.
3.Not Requesting Testing or Referrals
Good doctors rely on tests and imaging to diagnose injuries — but occupational clinics may delay or skip testing that's expensive or discouraged by the insurer. A clinic may take an X-ray rather than order an MRI. X-rays are cheap and useful for spotting broken bones, but they usually can't reveal a torn ligament, a herniated disc, or many other serious injuries. For those you'd need an MRI, CT scan, nerve testing (EMG), ultrasound, or another study. The insurer doesn't want to confirm a serious injury, because that makes your claim more expensive — and employers and insurers can exert more control over clinics they send lots of business to.
4.Filling Out Forms Incorrectly or Incompletely
Always remember: when you fill out forms at any doctor's office, you are creating medical evidence. What you write may eventually be seen by a judge or jury. Leave out important details and they may not believe your story — after all, you filled out the form yourself.
On intake forms you'll also often find a box stating that your accident happened at work. Be honest — no matter what anyone tells you. Some employers try to convince workers to document that the injury happened somewhere other than work. It's a trap. If you personally write that your accident didn't happen at work, how can you expect a judge to believe it did? That one mistake could cost you $100,000 or more. The first doctor's visit after a work accident is often the most important moment in the entire case.
5.Waiting Too Long to Hire an Attorney
As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Hiring an attorney early can prevent mistakes that can't be undone. Unless you're on your way to the hospital, your first call after a serious work accident should be to an experienced Atlanta workers' compensation attorney — who can manage your care, build the value of your case, and protect you against harassment.