Following an accident settlement, a big component of the ensuing compensation will be the medical expenses. After all, how is the victim going to pay for medical treatment they shouldn’t have had to go through in the first place? There are a lot of factors that go into calculating future medical workers’ compensation. Below is an overview of the process.
How is Future Medical Workers Compensation CalculatedFuture Medical Workers Compensation?
At the time of calculating the medical compensation that you deserve for future care, several different factors need to be taken into account. So much goes into the calculations, which is why you usually need a workers’ compensation attorney to help you determine this value. However, here are a few pointers on some of what goes into this process.
The Value of Medical Care
This might seem easy to determine at first, but it’s not as straightforward as it looks. It’s certainly not as easy as looking up the cost of medical treatment for the condition in question. To find the right number, it will have to include the costs of the main medical treatment, as well as the care for other related conditions that might come from the main problems at hand. The value of these medical expenses needs to take into account whether there are more affordable alternative care options available within reason. In addition to this, the value of medical care needs to take into consideration how effective the current medical treatments are and whether or not the patient will need additional care.
Economic Factors
A lot of people don’t think about this at first, but it’s very common for economic factors to influence the future medical workers’ compensation a patient receives, particularly when it comes to long-term treatments. Money changes from year to year. This happens gradually, but it does happen. This means that when treatment will be beyond merely immediate, those changes have to be implemented. Inflation, for example, needs to be taken into consideration throughout. Expected inflation for the duration of the treatment has to be calculated and incorporated into the compensation payments, as well as the expected rising costs of the medical treatment itself. Complicated? Maybe, but that’s why you reach out to an expert to handle the matter.
Lost Wages
Of course, future medical workers’ compensation wouldn’t be complete without taking into consideration lost wages. Because of medical treatments, subsequent therapies, and recovery times, the patient is bound to miss out on work, hence losing wages. The full extent of the lost wages will need to be calculated taking into account how much the person has missed out on so far, how much they are going to miss out in the future, and how this will affect their work in the future. If this all seems like an overly complicated process, that’s because it is. That is why you should contact a workers’ compensation attorney who can take care of this process. You shouldn’t contact just any attorney, of course. Contact the best. You can call Belal Hamideh, an excellent workers compensation attorney in Long Beach at (562) 526-1224. He’ll be sure to handle your case with the necessary care and attention.