Understanding Work Related Injuries

UNDERSTANDING WORK RELATED INJURIES Have you ever thought what would happen if you got hurt on the job or while traveling between offices or worse yet if you get sick because of the type of work that you are employed to do? If you sometimes think about this there is no need to worry. The reason that I say this because every company out there Federal and State alike are required to have workers compensation benefits. There are rules and regulation that are put into place to keep you safe while on the job or on the company’s property. The organization that oversees this would be the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that was developed in 1970 to protect workers from health and safety risks. Although all employers are overseen by OSHA there are a select few that are not these would be independent contractors, churches, domestic workers in private home settings, and federal employees (Valerius−Bayes−Newby−Seggern, 2008). Federal employers have their own compensation plans that are covered under the Federal Employees’ Compensation ACT (FECA). The first of four plans would be the long shore and Harbor workers’ compensation plans. This covers employees of in the maritime field. The second federal program would be the Black Lung Program. This covers employees that are employed or previously employed in coal mines. The third and final program is the energy employees occupational illness compensation program act. This covers employees or previous employees that have developed cancer and other serious illness from energy exposure. State worker’s compensation covers all others except federal employees, inmates employed by the prison; self- employed, for hire domestic, drivers under lease agreement, volunteers, independent, clergy and church members, and lastly agricultural laborers. No matter if you are a state or federal employee there are two different workers compensation programs that you will be covered under. The first one covers the

References: Valerius−Bayes−Newby−Seggern. (2008). Medical Insurance: An. The McGraw−Hill. WokersCompensation- The Workers ' Comp Service Center. (2009). Retrieved May 15, 2011, from WorkersCompensation.com: http://www.workerscompensation.com/ Valerius, Bayes, Newby, Seggern. (2008). Medical Insurance. In An Intergrates Claims Processing Approach, Third Edition (pp. 292 - 298). New york: McGraw Hill. WokersCompensation- The Workers ' Comp Service Center. (2009). Retrieved May 15, 2011, from WorkersCompensation.com: http://www.workerscompensation.com/