Answer
Workers’ comp provides, first and foremost, a weekly check called indemnity benefits, which is 62% of what you were making on average in the time before you got injured. Typically, the most important and immediate benefit is that weekly check while you’re out. Second, of course, are medical benefits—meaning if you’re hurt and require medical treatment, whether it’s an X-ray, MRI, physical therapy, or surgery, it is the workers’ comp insurance company or your employer, if they’re self-insured, who has to pay for that—not your health insurance, not you out of pocket, and not anyone else. So, there’s the weekly check, there’s medical benefits and coverage—those are the two principal forms of benefits. But there’s also specific compensation for other things like disfigurement, a scar, or a burn—there’s money, aside from your weekly check, that is there to compensate you for that. We can talk more about the specifics, but if you have a permanent loss of use of an arm, leg, or another body part, that’s another specific form of compensation available under the workers’ comp system. There are also certain vocational rehabilitation services you may qualify for as well. But those are the principal benefits.