Getting hurt at work can leave you with a significant loss of income and extensive medical bills. Workers’ compensation benefits in Ohio can provide quick access to medical care and reimbursement for lost wages while you recover. Workers’ comp will also be there to help you when you can return to work.
What Is Involved with Transitional Work?
After a work-related injury or illness, you might not be able to return to your job immediately. While workers’ compensation benefits may help, they only pay a portion of what you earn at your job. Fortunately, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) Transitional Work program can help you make up the difference. Through this program, you can perform work during your recovery. Transitional work includes several features and benefits:
- With input from your employer and human resource personnel, Ohio BWC, healthcare providers, and other agencies, you get work assigned to you based on your physical capabilities while recovering from your injury.
- Your work typically consists of light-duty tasks or duties other than what you did before your injury.
- Most transitional work programs last 30-120 days, depending on the injury or illness, required recovery period, and work available through your employer.
- Transitional work can protect your seniority and benefits.
- Employers often see increased productivity and lower medical costs when injured workers can perform transitional work.
Transitional work programs provide you with a path to re-entering the workplace and resuming your duties. However, no employee should feel forced or pressured to return to work before they are ready or able. Suppose you disagree with a medical assessment verifying that you are fit for work. In that case, an experienced attorney can help you respond to the Ohio BWC to request an appeal or discuss other options. Refusing a transitional work program without providing an explanation can jeopardize your workers’ compensation benefits.
Getting injured or sick on the job is painful and distressing. Furthermore, being unable to work causes hardship and can rob you of your dignity. At Clements, Taylor, Butkovich & Cohen, L.P.A., Co., we help you get back to work when you are ready. Our experienced workers’ comp lawyers understand that you know yourself best, and they can ensure that you go back to work only when the time is right for you.