How Workers Compensation May Affect Other Benefits – St. Louis Lawyer

Make sure your workers’ compensation payments will not interfere with any current benefits you are receiving or have received.

Weekly workers’ compensation payments can be a great thing for injured workers while they are waiting to return to work. For example, these important payments can help put food on the table during the long recovery process. However, if you or your family members rely on other payments for your livelihood, such as Social Security Disability, Medicare, or unemployment, the weekly workers’ compensation payments may be affected by or affect those payments. A St. Louis workers compensation lawyer will review your situation and ensure that a legal complication does not arise.

Medicare Payments

Receiving both Medicare and workers’ compensation is allowed, but is quite a tricky process. It may be best to contact a St. Louis workers’ compensation lawyer if you are eligible for both benefits. Medicare must approve all workers’ compensation claims. Because of that, they must be contacted before your workers’ compensation claim or settlement is finalized before a judge. You are solely responsible for contacting Medicare before the settlement is finalized. Unfortunately, the Medicare review process is extremely lengthy and is best filed as quickly as possible.

Social Security Disability Payments

If you currently collect Social Security Disability payments because of your injury or will in the future, it is imperative that you speak with an attorney. When you receive workers’ compensation payments, they can directly impact and lower your future or current Social Security Disability payments. However, this problem may be avoided if your attorney adds a specific clause to your settlement agreement.

Unemployment Payments

Missouri residents are statutorily prohibited from receiving unemployment benefits and workers’ compensation benefits at the same time. If you do receive both, you will generally be required to pay the workers’ compensation benefits back to the insurer.

Other Issues

Child Support: If you are not current on your child support payments, the insurance company is required to withhold a certain amount of your weekly checks for those payments.

Mo HealthNet: Missouri residents are not allowed to use MO HealthNet to cover medical bills that were also covered by their workers’ compensation insurer. This is common for medical visits that took place before a settlement or weekly payment amounts were decided. If this is the case, you will generally have to payback MO HealthNet. This amount will likely come directly from your workers’ compensation benefits.