If you have a pre-existing injury, you typically cannot seek workers’ comp benefits for that injury alone. If you break your arm at home, for example, you are responsible for the medical bills. Even though the broken arm may keep you out of work, you cannot seek workers’ comp because it was not work-related.
But what if you aggravate an existing injury? For instance, you may have strained your back a few weeks ago, leaving it stiff and tender. While performing your job duties, you twist awkwardly while lifting a heavy object and significantly worsen the injury. You now need extensive medical treatment that goes beyond the initial condition. In that situation, could you seek workers’ comp benefits?
The aggravation may be covered
According to the Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation employee handbook, an employee may seek workers’ comp benefits for an aggravation that makes a pre-existing injury worse, as long as the aggravation itself is the primary issue. The handbook states that “once the aggravation resolves and you return to the pre-injury condition, the claim will no longer be compensable.”
In other words, you may be entitled to workers’ comp benefits if you miss work or incur increased medical bills because your back injury became significantly worse due to a work-related incident. However, you do not need to be fully healed for those benefits to end. Benefits may stop once you return to the condition you were in before the work-related aggravation, even if you still have some stiffness or pain.
These cases can be complex when determining how much responsibility an employer bears. Because of this, it is important for workers to understand all of their legal options.