What if I have an old work injury and need additional medical treatment?

If you have an older work injury and the Workers’ Compensation insurer paid for your wage loss or medical treatment, regardless of when it was, you can still submit new claims for medical treatment now, as long as you never settled your claim with medical closed. Even if the insurer didn’t pay for any of your wage loss or medical treatment, as long as they admitted the injury was work-related you can still submit a new claim if the claim hasn’t settled with medical closed.

“Medical closed” means that you do not have the right to pursue future medical claims against the Workers’ Compensation insurance company. “Medical open” means that you have the right to submit future medical claims to the Workers’ Compensation insurer. However, your claims can still be denied even if you have medical open, if the insurer has reason to believe that the treatment is not reasonable, necessary, or related to your original work injury.

If you have an older injury that you settled with medical closed, then you cannot submit a new claim to Workers’ Compensation. You will need to submit new medical treatment claims to your own private health insurance.

If you have an injury that happened over six years ago and it was never reported to the Workers’ Compensation insurer, then you cannot submit a Workers’ Compensation claim because you have exceeded the statute of limitations.

You have also exceeded the statute of limitations if you have an injury that happened over three years ago and was reported to Workers’ Compensation, but the insurance company never admitted the injury was work-related, and you never received any medical treatment or wage loss.

When to Contact a Workers’ Compensation Lawyer

You should contact our Minnesota Workers’ Compensation lawyers right away if you submit a claim on an admitted injury, or one that you settled with medical open, and the insurer refuses to pay. We can advise you on how best to pursue getting the treatment that you need.

Oftentimes, we will advise you to submit the claim to your own insurance until we can get the insurance company to pay. It then becomes a matter between your private health insurer and the workers comp insurer, and the one insurer has to pay the other back.

Regardless of when your work injury happened, you can count on Fields Law to be there when you need us most. We’ll take care of your needs now while also looking out for your future. Contact us today, and let us help you plan for life after your work injury.