Once you have given notice and sought appropriate medical treatment to document your injury, the next step is to wait and see if your employer’s workers’ compensation carrier will accept or deny liability. The employer must inform the insurance carrier or workers’ compensation administrator, even if the employer disputes your claim. The employer should also report the accident to the Commission on the form “Employer’s First Report of Injury,” known as Form 45.

If your injury is accepted as a work accident, you are entitled to the following:

• Medical care reasonably required to cure or relieve the effects of the injury.
• Temporary total disability (TTD) benefits while you are off work recovering.
• Temporary partial disability (TPD) benefits while recovering but working light duty for less compensation.
• Vocational rehabilitation/maintenance benefits if you participate in an approved vocational rehabilitation program.
• Permanent partial disability (PPD) benefits if you sustain permanent disability or disfigurement but can still work.
• Permanent total disability (PTD) benefits if you are permanently unable to work.
• Death benefits for surviving family members.

If you cannot work for more than three days because of the injury, your employer must begin TTD payments, request more information from you, or provide a written explanation of why benefits are denied.

If, for any reason, your employer does not contact its carrier, you can try to contact them directly. To identify the party responsible for paying benefits, you may check the employer’s workplace notice, review the Commission’s website, or contact the Commission at inscompquestions.wcc@illinois.gov

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