California has a special type of benefit. Certain employees that get injured while on-the-job qualify for those TDD benefits.

What is a TDD benefit?

Those 3 letters stand for temporary total disability. Certain circumstances are linked to a situation that leads to the awarding of TDD benefits.

What are the characteristics of a situation in which an employee gets declared as being the victim of a temporary total disability?

The employee must have been injured while carrying out his or her job responsibilities. The doctor treating the injured employee must say that he or she cannot work. The doctor doing the examination is usually a physician in the employer’s medical provider network. It might become necessary for the employer to seek a determination from a physician outside of that network. That could be the case, if the employee has a special medical condition, one that the examining doctor did not know about.

For what length of time are the disability payments made available to the qualified employee?

The Personal Injury Lawyers in Compton say that payments should continue until the employee has reached the point of maximum medical improvement (MMI). At that point, the person that has been declared ready to return to work should meet with the employer, and mention any needed adaptations.

For instance, it could be that the returning employee needs more rest periods, or needs a sit-down job. If the other employees do not suffer from the completion of such adaptations, then the employer should make them.

By the same token, the employer might be asked to arrange for limited hours. If the returning employee wants to keep getting medical coverage, then those hours cannot be reduced by more than 10 hours below the normal 40-hour week.

What are the size of the delivered payments?

Each qualified employee gets an amount equal to 2/3 of his or her normal wages. For those employees that are receiving an allowance for housing or for a car, that allowance counts as part of their income. Hence, all aspects of the employee’s income must be considered, during a determination of the size of the TDD payment.

What can employees do, if they cannot return to work, even though their doctor declares that they have arrived at the point of MMI?

Employees that face that situation must apply for permanent partial disability benefits. Otherwise, the employee must plan on returning to work, or find a job that matches with the employee’s new requirements, the ones created by his or her medical condition.

Sometimes the Human Resources Department notes the discrepancy between the employee’s true condition and what has been stated by the examining physician. Consequently, the Human Resources Department might anticipate a future request for disability benefits.