A few of the benefits that Nevada injured workers overlook include the following: 1. Prescription coverage Make sure that your pharmacy has your claim number, and the phone and fax number for your adjuster.  If the adjuster sends you a pharmacy card, be sure to use it.  If your pharmacy tells you they are waiting for authorization and you can't wait, pay for the medicine and send your adjuster the receipt. Don't confuse the issue by using your private insurance.      2.  Mileage Reimbursement  If you travel more than 40 miles a week, or 20 miles one way, to your doctors' appointments,...

     In Sierra Nevada Administrators v. Negriev, the Nevada Supreme Court held that when an injured employee reports tip income to his or her employer, that income is included in the average monthly wage calculation.  The average monthly wage calculation is used to determine how much an injury worker receives for compensation benefits. The injured worker in this recent case was a bartender at a sports pub. He reported his tip income to his employer, but the employer did not include the tip income on his paycheck.  While the bartender reported his tip income to his employer, he did...

     Unless you have a very obvious surgical problem, it usually takes two to three months for the adjuster on your worker's compensation claim to schedule a consultation with an orthopedist or a neurosurgeon.   I like to remove my clients quickly from the clinic mill, with a request for change of physicians right away.  Otherwise, the  clinic doctor waits months to request a surgical consultation after  physical therapy hasn't made you better, and after  the clinic doctor finally gets a MRI .     ...

 For Fiscal Year 2013, which begins on July 1, 2013, the maximum average monthly wage used to calculate workers' compensation benefits will be increased to $5,222.63.  This is applicable to injuries on claims filed after July 1, 2013.  If you have a claim established already, this increase will not affect your benefits.  The maximum temporary total disability benefit in Nevada is 66 2/3 of the maximum average monthly wage. So, if you are out of work for a month and file a claim after July 1, 2013, the most you would receive in compensation benefits for the month is...

A blog post by Thomas A. Robinson for Lexis Nexis discusses a recent case  involving Utah's law that presumes that an injured worker is intoxicated and that the accident was caused by intoxication if any illicit drug or alcohol is found in the injured worker after the accident.  The case concerns a construction worker who stepped off the edge of decking at a construction project and fell fourteen feet to concrete below. A urine sample taken from him at the hospital on the day of the accident tested positive for cocaine metabolites. The construction worker won the appeal...

Injured workers in Nevada who do not have proper written proof of their right to legally work in the United States are entitled to the same benefits as any other injured worker, except for vocational rehabilitation benefits.  All injured workers are entitled to medical care for a work-related injury while working for a Nevada employer, even if they are working in the United States illegally.  The injured worker does need to be able to prove that he was working for a Nevada employer at the time of the accident at work.  That may be difficult if he is paid cash instead of a proper...

Workers' compensation insurers and their TPA's often suspend compensation benefits when an unrelated  medical problem  surfaces to delay surgery or  treatment for the work injury.  Insurers call it "Care Interrupt". I call it kicking an injured worker when he's already down. For example, I had an injured worker last month who was scheduled for a work-related back surgery.  She was already receiving TTD benefits when her surgery was scheduled for the following week.   She had to get an EKG done as part of the usual pre-surgery...