Have you been injured in an accident? Do you need medical attention? Was another person at fault? If you answered “yes” to these three questions, then you probably should hire a personal injury lawyer to help you seek damages. Personal injury lawyers work on a contingency basis, so there are no out-of-pocket costs. They claim their fees at the end of your case and they earn them. Read further to find out how hiring a personal injury attorney benefits you.

Damages that You’re Entitled To

If you’re injured in an accident that was someone else’s fault, you’re probably entitled to damages. Here are some of the damages that you’re owed:

• Medical Expenses – These include anything that’s involved in your recovery: hospital bills, surgeries, physical therapy, medication, scans, tests, follow-up appointments, et cetera.
• Lost Wages – If you aren’t able to work, have to reduce your hours, or are forced to use sick time, you should receive compensation for those losses.
• Pain and Suffering – Obviously, getting into an accident and being paid for your expenses is not nearly as good as not getting into the accident in the first place. Pain and suffering is a term of art for non-economic damages, like inconvenience, emotional trauma, and physical pain.

Why You Shouldn’t Accept an Initial Offer from an Insurer

Within 24 hours of making a claim for an accident injury, you can expect a settlement offer from the insurance company. They will assure you that you’ll get the money quickly and that it should cover your damages. Only, they’ll also want you to sign a waiver of liability, which will prevent you from getting any more money if you need it. This offer may seem tempting, but you should pass until you speak with a lawyer. Most initial settlement offers grossly underestimate your actual losses. Even after a personal injury lawyers contingency fees — which come out at the end —, you will usually do far better with a lawyer than without.

Attorney Contingency Fees in Florida

One of the factors that often prevent individuals from speaking with an accident attorney is the cost. As was mentioned before, there are no out-of-pocket costs. In Florida, the fees are capped by the state bar association. The fee your lawyer collects depends largely on which phase of the case it settles or whether or not it needs to be litigated and the amount of the settlement or jury award. Fees can range from 15 percent to 40 percent. You should speak with an attorney about their contingency fees before committing.

Hire an Attorney Sooner Rather Than Later

For most personal injury cases in Florida, the statute of limitations is four years from the date of the accident. While that’s a considerable amount of time, it’s still important that you initiate your case sooner. Evidence can be lost, witnesses become more difficult to find, and bills begin to pile up. Attorneys offer a free initial consultation and until you sign a commitment agreement, you’re not under any obligation to use them.

In Florida, 1800injured.care car accident lawyer connects accident victims with attorneys and medical professionals. Use this reliable referral service to talk with a personal injury attorney for your accident.

Workers’ compensation gives financial support to employees while also financially protecting businesses in cases of work-related injury or illness. Regulations regarding workers’ compensation benefits vary by state and industry, but generally speaking, all U.S. companies have to have workers’ comp insurance coverage. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to purchase a plan and inform your workers of their available benefits.

Should a workplace injury occur, the injured employee can file a workers’ comp claim to the company’s insurance provider. The insurer will then assess the claim and offer a compensation package to cover the related expenses.

Whenever you switch insurance providers, update your policy, or hire new employees, you should review the benefits included in the plan and clearly relay this information. Whenever an employee comes to you with questions about workplace safety or what would happen should an accident occur, you want to have answers ready. To help yourself and your staff better understand the ins and outs of workers’ comp insurance, you may want to think of your workers’ comp policy as five different categories of compensation:

1. Immediate/Short-term Medical Treatment

Workers’ compensation benefits will help your employee pay for medical expenses in work-related illnesses or injuries. Medical costs may include emergency room and doctor visits, surgeries, physical therapy, and associated prescriptions. At least some of these benefits will start immediately. Then, weekly benefits are paid out to employees whose illness or injury prevents them from permanently or temporarily returning to work.

These benefits don’t have deductibles, dollar limits, or copays. Instead, benefits continue until the patient recovers from the injury. However, some states do place restrictions on certain types of treatments, such as alternative care options.

2. Ongoing Care

Some workers’ compensation claims deal with severe illnesses and injuries that require consistent, ongoing treatment. Common instances where injury or illness developed over longer periods include back problems or carpal tunnel syndrome. This ongoing care is covered through workers’ compensation insurance.

3. Compensation for Lost Wages

Lost wages are a major concern for employees unable to work due to workplace injuries. Workers’ compensation helps to replace the income your employees miss out on during their recovery period. Wage replacement is typically about two-thirds of the worker’s average salary wage, but most states have a maximum payout amount.

4. Disability Benefits

Disability benefits vary from state to state, but in general, they protect employees who become permanently or temporarily disabled due to a work injury or illness. The amount an employee receives will vary based on the nature of the illness or injury, the extent to which it inhibits their ability to work, and how it changes their daily life.

Disability compensation cases are classified into four categories:

• Temporary Total– In which the worker is completely unable to work, but for a temporary amount of time
• Temporary Partial– Indicates the worker was partially disabled by a short-term injury. These employees may be able to work part-time or in a limited capacity until healed
• Permanent Total– Applies to individuals that have sustained a permanent, incurable injury. As a result, they cannot earn future income in the same field of work
• Permanent Partial– Categorizes individuals having sustained a permanent injury that prevents them from earning their standard income before their injury or illness

5. Funeral Costs

In the event of a workplace fatality, workers’ compensation coverage will help pay for some or all of the funeral costs. It can also provide death benefits for the deceased employee’s beneficiaries.

What Happens if an Employee Rejects the Compensation Package?

Workers’ compensation insurance is a way for employers to avoid out-of-pocket expenses should an employee suffer a work-related injury or illness. Workers’ compensation was originally designed as a protection for businesses. When employees were injured, they would often take legal action against their employer, monopolizing time, and putting a great financial strain on the business.

However, employees have the right to reject the compensation package presented and try to negotiate a settlement with their employer. This process is an alternative in which your employee can seek a monetary settlement.

The workers comp settlement process varies by state and how the employee chooses to proceed. The employee and their attorney will calculate their desired settlement payout and then contact the insurance company.

As an employer, it’s essential that you try to make the settlement process as smooth as possible. For example, you can:

• Provide all the necessary paperwork and contact information
• Keep the employee up to date on company injury policies
• Reach out to your insurance carrier with any concerns or questions

The workers’ compensation settlement may be a lump sum or take the form of a structured payment plan. If associated parties cannot or will not negotiate and reach an agreement, the employee and attorney may decide to pursue a workers’ comp hearing or lawsuit.

At a worker’s comp hearing or trial, a judge evaluates the case to determine a fair settlement. Once the judge makes their decision, the insurance company will pay the claim, and the settlement is complete.

Workers’ Compensation Benefits Everyone

All employers should strive to create a safe and productive environment for their employees. While maintaining this atmosphere is important, the only way you can protect yourself and your employees from high medical costs and injury-related losses in production is to find the right workers’ compensation coverage for your business.

Walmart has purchased CareZone’s prescription management technology and related patents as the retailer and rival pharmacies take more steps into the digitization of healthcare and medicines.

Walmart, which operates hundreds of pharmacies, is competing with CVS Health, which owns the drug benefit manager Caremark, and Walgreens Boots Alliance, which is investing billions of dollars into partnerships and new technology systems. Meanwhile, online retail rival Amazon is stepping up its effort into prescription management and drug delivery following its purchase of the online pharmacy PillPack two years ago.

“CareZone has developed a mobile app that helps individuals and families manage medicine and chronic illness for each member of the household,” Walmart said in a blog post Monday afternoon from Sean Slovenski, Walmart’s senior vice president of U.S. Health & Wellness and Lori Flees, senior vice president for for Sam’s Health & Wellness. “Families can use the app to scan labels or insurance cards to speed and simplify the process.”

Financial terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed but Walmart said certain CareZone employees would be joining the retailer’s workforce including “the members of CareZone’s product and technology team that built their app, and who will help us innovate and integrate faster with Walmart’s existing systems.”

Walmart said it has acquired “specific assets” that include CareZone’s technology platform, patents and key intellectual property, which help patients better organize their prescription information.

“The goal of any technology startup is to build a product or experience that touches the lives of as many people as possible,” CareZone’s co-founder and chief technology officer Walter Smith said. “Adding our technology platform to Walmart’s existing digital capabilities and physical reach creates a unique opportunity to redefine what the future of digital health and wellness can look like. The CareZone team members joining Walmart are excited to bring our knowledge and apply it to such a broad canvas.”

Walmart has a long and noted history in the pharmacy business, including sales of Medicare part D drug plans for seniors with the health insurer Humana as well as a landmark program for the uninsured launched in 2006 to sell $4 prescriptions.

“The technology and team members joining Walmart will augment our current Health & Wellness capabilities and support our focus on digital health care solutions,” Slovenski and Flees wrote. “CareZone will remain a separate company unrelated to Walmart.”

Walmart is developing an array of new healthcare services, including ways to measure physicians in communities. Walmart is also beginning to open new healthcare services “Super Centers” that feature an array of primary medical services, dental care, and behavioral health services as part of a new model expected to eventually be replicated in other markets.

The first such “Walmart Health” brand center opened last year in Dallas, Georgia, as a health facility offering more services than the 19 “Care Clinics” Walmart has already operated elsewhere in Georgia, South Carolina and Texas.

Biocomposites, an international medical devices company that engineers, manufactures and markets world leading products for use in infection management in bone and soft tissue, announced that its STIMULAN® and genex® products have been added to the NHS Supply Chain’s Total Orthopaedic Solutions 2 framework agreement. NHS Supply Chain manages the sourcing, delivery and supply of healthcare products and services for NHS trusts and healthcare organisations across England and Wales and TOS2 provides a single source for NHS Trusts to purchase orthopaedic products.

STIMULAN recently gained a new European CE mark approval for mixing with antibiotics: vancomycin, gentamicin and tobramycin. It is the only calcium matrix approved for use in bone and soft tissue and targets high concentrations of antibiotic at the point of infection at levels unachievable systemically – which lowers rates of reinfection, saves hospital costs and improves patient outcomes. STIMULAN is the only product of its type available through the TOS2 agreement.

The NHS Supply Chain was designed to help the NHS deliver clinically assured, quality products at the best value. The TOS2 agreement provides competitive national pricing and builds on TOS1 which secured over 50% of all spend in scope across the English NHS, with the aim of rising to over 90% with TOS2.

The NHS adoption of STIMULAN builds on the product’s commendable traction worldwide and it is the option of choice for influential surgeons managing infection, offering them the flexibility to use their chosen antibiotics at patient-specific concentration levels in both bone and soft tissue.

Michael Harris, Chief Executive Officer of Biocomposites, said: “STIMULAN is already used in over 50,000 cases every year in thousands of hospitals around the world. As the only calcium sulfate antibiotic carrier approved for use in bone and soft tissue, our addition to TOS2 makes it even easier for hospitals and surgeons to access this breakthrough solution as part of their infection management strategy.”

About Biocomposites

Biocomposites is an international medical devices company that engineers, manufactures and markets world leading products for use in infection management in bone and soft tissue. Based in Keele, UK, it has global operations across Europe, USA, Canada, China and India. Biocomposites is a world leader in the development of innovative calcium compounds for surgical use. Its products target a broad spectrum of infection risks across a variety of specialities, including musculoskeletal infection, orthopaedics, trauma, spine, foot and ankle and podiatry. Its STIMULAN products are the first calcium matrices to receive European approval for mixing with antibiotics such as vancomycin, gentamicin and tobramycin, for use in bone and soft tissue. Biocomposites products are now used in over 100,000 procedures per annum and sold in more than 40 countries around the world.