Does my employer have right to send me to work after I incurred a neck an injury?
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Does my employer have right to send me to work after I incurred a neck an injury?
They do not know what kind injury of neck I have. The doctor did not do MRI.
Asked on September 6, 2012 under Employment Labor Law, Pennsylvania
Answers:
Timothy D. Belt, Esquire / The Belt Law Firm
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
I agree in part with the prior poster. If your employer has complied with the panel requirements, you need to treat with the panel doctors for the first 90 days in order for the workers' compensation insurance carrier to be required to make payment. If they have not complied with the panel requirements, or if you are willing to pay for the treatment yourself, you are free to go wherever you want for treatment.
If you have been released to return to work, and your employer offers work within your restrictions, you do not have to report for the job. However, if you refuse the work, the employer then has a bases to seek suspension of your wage loss benefits.
If you have not already done so, I would strongly suggest that you talk with a workers' compensation attorney. The initial appointment should be free of charge, and you can avoid many pitfalls with competent representation.
Andrew Goldberg
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
For the first 90 days following your injury, you have to treat with the employer's doctor. If you are dissatisfied, you can go back to the doctor and tell him or her your symptoms and discuss getting an MRI. Before an MRI is presribed, you must exhibit symptoms of a disc injury and not merely a cervical ( neck ) sprain,. Your complaints and exam findings may not have caused the doctor to suspect a disc injury. You may rather want to discuss medications and physical therapy. So, the answer is "no", the doctor does not have to get you an MRI before you go back to work.
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