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MEDICAL BENEFITS FOR INJURED LYFT DRIVERS

20 May 22

RIVERSIDE LAWYERS HELPING GIG WORKERS

Being a Lyft rideshare driver, you may have signed a contract agreeing to be an independent contractor. If you got hurt as an independent contractor, the workers’ compensation system does not provide a safety net for work-related injuries. Providentially, Lyft does not have the power to say that you are an independent contractor, except it can justify being one in a relevant proceeding. Accordingly, medical reimbursements for injured Lyft drivers may be available.

Get connected with the Riverside workers’ compensation attorneys at Perris, Sun City, Corona, Temecula, Moreno Valley, San Bernardino, Hemet, Victor Valley, Beaumont, Banning, Yucca Valley, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, and Indio Brawley. We may be able to guide you by creating your prerogative for this significant assistance.

ABC TEST

In Riverside, employees injured on the job are liable for medical reimbursements under their company’s workers’ compensation insurance. These assistances provide significant health coverage to employees whose injuries require more than a single emergency room or doctor’s office. You are assumed to be an employee, except Lyft can meet the standards of an ABC test beforehand an arbitrator in the workers’ compensation system. To project you are an independent contractor and not an employee, Lyft would need to justify:

(1) It didn’t supervise or control how you offered rides
(2) Rideshares are outside its core business
(3) You were associated with a separately registered trade, occupation, profession, or business.

While each case is varied, rideshare drivers may conceivably be undergoing treatment as employees under the test.

MEDICAL BENEFITS FOR INJURED LYFT DRIVERS

A workers’ compensation insurer is obligated to make the payment for all critical and reasonable medical care you need to cure or relieve the impact of your injury. Based on your injuries, this may be inclusive of an emergency room visit, ongoing medical care, medications, medical equipment such as a wheelchair, crutches, and physical therapy, at the same time, surgical and other procedures. The higher the cost of the medical care, the more likely your employer’s insurer is to refuse to pay for it. In some cases, your treating doctor’s preference of treatment may be provocative to the insurer. For instance, if you have constant stress wounds such as carpal tunnel syndrome, your employer’s insurer may refuse to pay for surgery, even if it’s appropriate and necessary. When an insurer is skeptical about the opinions of your treating physician or the nature or extent of your wounds, it might ask you to undergo an independent medical exam (IME).

Despite its name, an independent medical exam is not independent. The insurer chooses the doctor performing the exam, who often has a history of suggesting more conservative treatment and responses to workers’ wounds. You should be conscious that the IME doctor is not your treating physician and therefore isn’t necessary to maintain the confidence of anything you reveal. The intention of the IME is so the doctor can prepare an evidentiary report that can be utilized in a proceeding to terminate or limit your benefits. For example, your doctor may recommend that you undergo back surgery because physical therapy, medication, and corticoid injections are not having any action. An IME doctor may take a diverse view and recommend you continue with the less expensive treatments or even return to work with severe pain. When deciding, the arbitrator will accept which doctor is more credible given the actual incidents presented. Some employees maintain a lawyer to prosecute or close their workers’ compensation claims. Legal counsel may be justified when the employer disputes liability, challenges medical bills, or promptly refuses to pay disability compensation.

CHOOSING A MEDICAL PRACTITIONER

When seeking medical care for a work-related injury, you may select your doctor. The medical practitioner bills the insurer to generate a documentation record indicating that you sustained a work-related injury. It would assist if you informed the doctor that your injury was work-related from the first visit.

If Lyft takes part in a preferred provider network, you are authorized to choose a doctor from that network. If you remain in-network, you may select another doctor if you do not like your initial choice. The first or second doctor can suggest you to specialists who will not count against your two options. If you look around for treatment from a third doctor for the reason that you did not prefer your initial two selections, you will be accountable for paying for the third doctor. If you earlier selected a doctor outside the network, you are only allowed one choice.

CONSULT A SEASONED ATTORNEY IN RIVERSIDE

The Law Office of Dr. Peter M. Schaeffer is one of the finest compensation attorneys in Riverside; for Lyft drivers’medical benefits, you can easily visit us at any location in California, as we are present in all major locations like Riverside, Perris, Sun City, Corona, Temecula, Moreno Valley, San Bernardino, Hemet, Victor Valley, Beaumont, Banning, Yucca Valley, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indio Brawley.

Contact us now! To know more about Lyft drivers’ medical benefits!

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