If you're hurt at work and cannot go back to work for more than 90 days, then the insurance company is supposed to notify the Reemployment Benefits Administrator (RBA) which triggers a reemployment investigation. The RBA appoints a private employment counselor to talk with you, collect information from the Employer and your doctors and prepares a report to the RBA answering the questions: 1. will you sustain a permanent partial impairment rating, 2. can you go back to work in the job you were doing, 3. can you go back to work in any job you performed in the past 10 years, and 4. have you had reemployment training before.
Depending on the answers, the RBA may find you eligible for reemployment benefits. You then elect whether you want job dislocation benefits (a pay-off) or whether you want to go through retraining. If you elect retraining, you can select your own employment counselor to develop a plan. (The RBA will give you a list of counselors.) The plan is then submitted to the RBA. When the RBA approves the plan, the Insurance Company starts paying you "41k" benefits (a bi-weekly stipend) and it will pay for your books and tuition. You have two years from the date of the plan approval to complete the plan.
The Law Office of Keenan Powell provides free consultations regardless of whether or not you have been controverted. To contact Keenan Powell, use the contact form on www.keenanpowell.com or call 258-7663.