What is workers compensation?
A. Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system of benefits for people with job-related injuries or diseases. Workers’ compensation benefits are separate from other forms of health insurance or common law personal injury claims. Most employers in Missouri and Kansas are required by statutory law to provide workers’ compensation benefits to their employees who are injured in work-related activities.
Workers’ compensation is a state-required insurance program required for employers with 3 or more employees to compensate employees who are injured or who get ill from work-related incidents. Workers’ compensation is a system that pays for medical costs and lost wages resulting from the work-related injury or illness. In order for an employee to benefit from workers’ compensation, they are not allowed to sue their employer for negligence.
Once known as “workman’s comp” for short, the term has been altered to a more politically correct, genderless phrase. Worker’s compensation is basically an insurance program, mandated by law, that protects employees if they become ill or injured while carrying out the duties of a job. In some cases, worker’s compensation may also pay damages to a worker’s family if the employee is incapacitated for the long term or fatally injured. Each state has its own version of worker’s compensation laws, and state statutes regulate a given employer’s responsibility to workers. State law also establishes which types of injuries and illnesses are actionable and the type of award an injured party can expect to receive. Federal laws only apply to employees of the federal government or those persons who conduct interstate commerce. Worker’s compensation covers things like work related illnesses, falls and other accidents in the workplace, but it also covers harm to employees conducting business outside
In most states, employers are required to purchase insurance for their employees from a workers’ compensation insurance company. This is sometimes called an insurance carrier. For some companies, this can be a state corporation. Other companies will use private insurers. In some states, larger employers which are clearly solvent are allowed to self-insure or act as their own insurance companies. Smaller companies, with fewer than three or four employees, are not required to carry worker’s compensation insurance at all. In all situations, employees do not pay for or take out worker’s compensation insurance. When a worker is injured, his or her claim is filed with the insurance company, or self-insuring employer, which pays medical and disability benefits according to a state-approved formula. In essence, then, worker’s compensation is insurance to protect employers when their employees are injured on the job. Go to Top of Page Who and what is covered? Most on-the-job injuries are covere
