201-880-7213

Firm News

Practical Advice on Reporting No Lost Time Claims in New York.

How to report “No Lost Time” or “Medical Onlys”

The Board is now instructing carriers that when lost time does not exceed seven days, the claim administrator should file the FROI accepting liability for the medical portion of the claim. Why seven days? That is the “waiting period” for indemnity benefits in New York. Although the Board initially instructed carriers that the FROI-PD form was accepted (for a “partial denial” medical-only filing) the Board rescinded this guidance and now states that a FROI-00 should be filed; the claim administrator may later file a denial if lost time is claimed (SROI-04). This can also be used when there is no evidence regarding the claim.

Reporting Lost time with No Medical.

In an abrupt change from prior practice where no lost time benefits were issued until medical showed a causally-related disability, the Board is now instructing carriers to begin issuing lost time benefits at the minimum rate once lost time is alleged by the claimant despite the lack of any correlating medical narrative. (Source: “Proper eClaims Filing,” slide 4 of 25, WCB training webinar, September 8, 2015. Link here: https://www.wcb.ny.gov/content/main/Monitoring/Controversy.pptx
A medical only filing is not appropriate when the employer reports that there is compensable lost time. For example, a worker was injured at work, went to the doctor, and called the employer to say that the doctor told him to come back in ten days with no work until then. In that example, an Initial Payment (SROI-Initial Payment) indicating payment to the injured worker should be filed as described in the next paragraph.

Learn more:

Download our New York Workers’ Compensation Law Handbook:

Handbook

Register for our monthly webinar series:

Register for Webinars

Sign up for monthly newsletter below

Download the New York Workers’ Compensation Law Handbook

Download Our New York Workers’ Compensation Law Handbook

The 2023 edition of Gregory Lois’ practical, up-to-date, and easy-to-understand guide to workers’ compensation claims in New York.

This book is designed for employers, attorneys, claim adjusters, physicians, self-insured employers and vocational rehabilitation workers.

Download Now

Learn More About New York Workers’ Compensation Defense at LOIS

We represent insurance carriers, self-insured employers, third party claim administrators, and employers before the New York State Workers' Compensation Board. We handle cases from cradle-to-grave. We want to be by your side, moving cases aggressively to closure from the start of litigation all the way through to settlement.

We only assign one attorney and one paralegal to each case. This means that your team members always have one contact to go to for any questions. We do not have 'hearing attorney' or a 'negotiation attorney' or 'appeal department' or anything else! All of our attorneys handle all of those roles – meaning cases are not 'passed around' as they move through the litigation process. Your risk professional or adjuster always knows who is assigned – because the attorney does not change.

Learn More

Get articles delivered to your inbox, once a month.

Subscribe Today!