Will Workers Compensation Cover My Knee Replacement Surgery?

If you’ve suffered a knee injury at work, it can cause you a lot of serious problems and make it difficult to perform your job.

If you have suffered a knee injury, you may find it hard to walk and it could prevent you from lifting anything, from using equipment, or climbing a ladder. You may not even be able to stand still for any length of time. In short, a knee injury can prevent you from performing your job properly or may even prevent you from performing your job at all.

Your doctor will likely keep an eye on your knee following an injury and they may recommend that the best course of action would be surgery. There are different types of knee surgery ranging from minor surgery, to a total knee replacement. Knee replacement surgery is a major surgery and the recovery period can be long.

Most workers who are recommended a knee replacement surgery wonder whether or not workers compensation will cover it. While in some cases the cause of injury is clearly work-related and the insurance company agrees to pay for the surgery, in many cases they argue that your knee problems could be pre-existing or not related to work. Our St. Louis workplace injury lawyer explains what you can do if you have been recommended a knee replacement surgery.

What should you do?

Well it’s very important to get a St Louis workers injury attorney to review your case. At the Law Office of James M. Hoffmann, we offer to review your case free of charge. While the insurance company is not likely to mention it, having a previous knee problem before the injury does not automatically invalidate your claim for compensation. If your job has caused a previously existing knee condition to worsen and thus require surgery, then the insurance company should be paying for it.

After you’ve been through surgery and are recovering, you should be given a permanent partial disability rating by your doctor. There are special guidelines set down for medical practitioners to follow with regards to making this decision and giving their rating.

If you are given a high rating it may mean that you simply cannot return to work and will need to file a claim for permanent disability benefits. The sooner you do this the better as it can take time for a claim to go through and in the meantime you could have mounting medical bills. Additionally, if your attorney thinks that you would benefit from a secondary medical assessment then this can be arranged in a timely manner.