Benefits & Payments
The money: the medical care comp pays for at no cost to you, temporary wage benefits while you heal, permanent disability when you don’t fully recover, how your average weekly wage is figured (and why it is so often wrong), mileage and retraining, how long benefits last, and whether any of it is taxable or reachable by creditors.
All Benefits & Payments guides
- Permanent Partial vs. Permanent Total Disability Benefits
PPD vs. PTD after maximum medical improvement: how states rate permanent injuries, what drives the amount, and how PTD interacts with SSDI.
- Temporary Total vs. Temporary Partial Disability Benefits
How temporary total (TTD) and temporary partial (TPD) disability wage-replacement benefits work after a work injury, and what to do if your checks stop.
- Work Restrictions and What They Mean for Your Pay
How a doctor's work restrictions after a job injury affect your workers' comp wage benefits, and how to protect yourself when your employer offers modified duty.
- Prescriptions, Opioids, and Medication in Workers' Comp
Why you generally shouldn't pay out of pocket for comp medication, why a pharmacy can suddenly refuse a refill, and how opioids and future drug costs shape a settlement.
- Vocational Rehabilitation and Retraining After a Work Injury
If a work injury means you can't return to your old job, some states offer comp-funded retraining. Here's how it works and how to protect yourself.
- Impairment Ratings and the AMA Guides
How doctors turn a work injury into a permanent impairment percentage, why the edition of the AMA Guides your state uses matters, and how to challenge a rating you disagree with.
- Your Comp Check Is Late or Stopped: What to Do
Your workers' comp check stopped or came late? Here's why it happens, exactly what to do first, and why deadlines to challenge a stoppage are short and vary by state.
- Permanent Disability Ratings in Workers' Comp
How permanent disability ratings work in workers' comp after MMI, scheduled vs. unscheduled losses, and how to dispute a low rating.
- Home Health and Attendant Care Benefits
Hurt at work and can't care for yourself? Attendant care is a medical benefit, and in many states a family member can be paid to provide it.
- Are Workers' Comp Benefits Taxable? Can They Be Garnished?
Workers' comp benefits are generally not taxable federal income, and most states protect them from ordinary creditors - but the SSDI offset and support orders are real exceptions. Here's the framework, and why the details vary by state.
- What Medical Care Workers' Comp Pays For
Workers' comp is meant to cover medical treatment for your work injury at no cost to you. Here's what's generally covered, what limits apply, and how the rules vary by state.
- How Long Do Workers' Comp Benefits Last?
The four separate clocks behind workers' comp benefits, why they end at different times, and how a settlement can close them for good.
- Penalties, Interest, and Bad Faith When Comp Pays Late
Workers' comp carriers have their own deadlines. Learn when late or unreasonable claims handling triggers penalties, interest, or fees.
- Maximum Medical Improvement: What It Actually Means
MMI doesn't mean you're healed. It means your condition has plateaued -- and it changes your benefits. Here's what to expect.
- How Your Average Weekly Wage Is Calculated (and Why It's Often Wrong)
How your average weekly wage is figured in workers' comp — and the overtime, tips, bonuses, and second jobs that often get left out of it.
- Workplace Death and Survivor Benefits
A plain-English guide to workers' comp death benefits, funeral costs, third-party wrongful-death suits, and OSHA investigations.
- Scheduled vs. Unscheduled Injuries in Workers' Comp
How workers' comp splits permanent disability into "scheduled" body parts paid by the week versus "unscheduled" whole-body claims - and why the category can change what your claim is worth.
- Mileage and Travel Reimbursement in Workers' Comp
Many states reimburse mileage, parking, transit, and sometimes meals and lodging for authorized workers' comp treatment - here's how to log trips and get paid.