Pre-existing conditions, in and of themselves, do not prevent you from receiving workers’ compensation benefits. What matters is whether your work activities or your work injury exacerbated the underlying condition you already had for reasons unrelated to work. You can still qualify for workers’ compensation benefits if you can show—through medical evidence or otherwise—that your work did, in fact, aggravate your pre-existing condition, and that the aggravation was significant enough to disable you or make you unable to work. If you can show that connection, you are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits just like someone who was injured without having a pre-existing condition. For help understanding how pre-existing conditions are evaluated, you can speak with our Rhode Island workers comp attorney team, or review broader eligibility rules in our RI workers’ comp benefits. Related issues like claim denials or injuries that develop over time may also apply.

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