Back and neck injuries are incredibly common, and many people who are suffering from these injuries oftentimes seek out chiropractic care as part of a treatment regimen. A chiropractor is a doctor who carefully and intentionally manipulates your body in a specific manner to help realign your spine or decompress irritated spinal nerves.
Chiropractic care can be helpful for assisting in a patient’s recovery from certain injuries, but because it is generally consider a passive treatment technique compared to a treatment like physical therapy, it’s possible that you may run into some pushback if you are hoping to have chiropractic sessions covered by a workers’ compensation claim following an on-the-job injury. Below, we explain whether or not chiropractic sessions are covered by workers’ compensation, and how you can ensure your sessions are reimbursed through an injury claim.
Will Work Comp Pay For A Chiropractor?
Workers’ compensation may very well pay for your chiropractic sessions, but you shouldn’t just assume they will be covered because you hurt your back at work. Even if you are professionally diagnosed with a back or neck injury and you seek out chiropractic care, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to be reimbursed for those expenses. So what do you need to do in order for your chiropractor sessions to be covered by a workers’ compensation claim?
For starters, you need a compensable injury. This simply means that your injury arose directly out of your employment, and these injuries have been confirmed by a medical professional. If you are injured at work and a doctor confirms the presence of real injuries, you’re just missing one more element in order to collect compensation in this instance, and that is your doctor must recommend chiropractic care as part of your recovery program. If your doctor recommends eight weeks of physical therapy and you decide to also or alternatively seek out chiropractor services, know that you will not be able to collect compensation for these medical expenses because this treatment was not recommended by a professional.
You can ask your doctor if they see merit in pursuing chiropractic sessions, or you can seek out a second medical opinion if you are hoping to pursue a different rehabilitation plan, but you can’t just seek out services that have not specifically been laid out in a recovery plan by your treating physician. Let’s rephrase that – you can seek out those services if you so choose, just know that anything not specifically recommended by your treating physician will not be covered by a workers’ compensation claim.
If you believe that chiropractic care or any similar type of medical treatment should be covered by workers’ compensation, set up that second medical opinion to see if another physician can chart a different recovery course. If they see the same thing as the first, you’ll have to follow the original treatment protocol to ensure all expenses are covered, but if they recommend chiropractic care, your lawyer should certainly be able to recoup these expenses through a workers’ compensation claim.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if it’s chiropractic care, massage therapy, acupuncture or a similar type of alternative treatment, it will only be covered by workers’ compensation in Minnesota if the treatment is recommended by a treating physician following a legitimate on-the-job injury.
For more information about workers’ compensation claims or collecting the benefits you deserve, connect with the team at Hey Workers today at (844) 439-9675.
