Pre-Existing Conditions for Workers in Greenville

Anyone can be injured at work. Injuries can range from a mere minor inconvenience to significantly detrimental and life-threatening. Sometimes, workers experience harm that is catastrophic to their well-being. These incidents can completely change a victim’s life and put them in a disheartening mental, physical, and emotional state. Luckily, injured employees can file workers’ compensation claims to seek relief. However, sometimes, people have pre-existing conditions that they assume can affect the relief they obtain.

When you have experienced a life-changing, devastating incident while on the job, you may be wondering how you can make ends meet and how any pre-existing conditions you have can affect what happens next. You can understand these intricacies by consulting with a skilled team of legal professionals. Speaking with a lawyer who has experience handling cases involving pre-existing conditions for workers in Greenville are one of the first steps you should take to secure your future.

Understanding the Nature of Pre-Existing Conditions

A medical issue that is typically chronic or long-lasting and affects a person prior to their health insurance going into effect is a pre-existing condition. Certain jobs can make them worse, as these injuries are susceptible to reinjury. Some examples of injuries that are the most likely to be reaggravated at work include:

Arthritis

Workers who engage in repetitive motions and high-impact actions, or whose work is largely sedentary are susceptible to different forms of arthritis. This can include desk jobs like receptionists and range to construction work and other sorts of manual labor.

Torn Ligaments

Workers with a pre-existing torn ligament are at risk of aggravating their injury if they perform work that requires repetitive movements, including twisting or frequent bending.

Herniated Discs

Employees with pre-existing herniated disc injuries are at risk of aggravating them if they have a physically demanding job that demands heavy lifting, pulling, or pushing.

Anxiety

There are many different kinds of anxiety disorders. If someone with anxiety works in an environment that is high-pressure, fast-paced, or involves exposure to traumatic events, they risk triggering that injury. Some examples would include being in the healthcare or public safety field.

Depression

Fields with the highest rates of depression include public and private transportation, social services, manufacturing, and personal services.

Workers’ compensation can cover aggravated pre-existing conditions. An employee must be able to show that work-related activities was a material factor in heightening their illness. The job does not need to be the only thing affecting the person’s state. Further, the disability must affect a person’s ability to perform their job, at least temporarily. Employees are required to inform their employer that they have been harmed at work within a specific period of time. However, a person will not be deemed ineligible to receive benefits if they did not inform their employer previously about their pre-existing injury. During an initial consultation, a Greenville lawyer could explain how your recurring condition will factor into your workers’ compensation claim.

Proving a Pre-Existing Condition

You need to prove that your illness existed before what happened to you at work. This can be complicated. It is common to experience challenges when proving one’s injury to the insurance company in charge of workers’ compensation claims.

One of the biggest challenges is proving the pre-existing injury through documentation. The documentation serves as important evidence and establishes a person’s health and a reference point for measuring the new harm they experienced. Another big challenge is that it can be difficult to distinguish new injuries. Proving new symptoms and causation is crucial to a successful claim. Further, insurance companies are often skeptical and will work hard to poke holes in a person’s complaint in order to deny or reduce what they can obtain. Due to these challenges, it is wise to hire a Greenville attorney to assist you in proving your pre-existing condition to insurance companies.

We Help Greenville Workers With Pre-Existing Conditions Get Compensated

The workers’ compensation claim process can be challenging for workers with pre-existing conditions in Greenville. However, you are entitled to workers’ comp when you experience a harmful accident at the workplace or while performing your employment-related duties. Do not be wrongly deterred by any old injuries that you may have.