Vocational Rehabilitation & Job Retraining
JOB RETRAINING & VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION
INTRODUCTION TO VOCATIONAL & JOB RETRAINING IN OKLAHOMA
Job retraining, placement and vocational rehabilitation services are just one of another of the permanent disability benefits provided under the Oklahoma Workers Compensation Act. Generally, the Oklahoma Workers Comp Act provides that when, as a result of an on-the-job accident or injury, the Tulsa or Oklahoma City area injured worker is unable to perform the same occupational & job duties he or she was performing prior to the injury, the injured employee will be entitled to such vocational rehabilitation services provided by either a: (1) technology center school, (2) public vocational skills center; (3) public secondary school offering vocational-technical education courses; or (4) member institution of the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education–which shall include retraining and job placement so as to restore the injured Oklahoma employee to gainful employment at or above his or her pre-injury pay.
The Oklahoma City or Tulsa Work Comp Court may consider, if timely & properly requested by the injured worker &/or his or her attorney or lawyer and, after affording all parties, to include the employer, its insurance company and the injured employee & his or her attorneys or lawyers, an opportunity to be heard, referring the injured employee to a qualified physician &/or facility for evaluation of the practibility of, need for and kind of rehabilitation services or training necessary and appropriate in order to restore the injured Oklahoma employee to gainful employment. The cost of such an evaluation, if ordered by a judge of the Oklahoma City or Tulsa Workmans Compensation Court–shall be paid by the employer &/or its insurance company. Upon receipt of such report, and after affording all parties, to include the injured worker, his or her attorneys or lawyers, the employer and its insurance company, an opportunity to be heard, the Oklahoma City or Tulsa Workmans Comp Court shall order that any rehabilitation services or training, recommended in the report, or such other rehabilitation services or retraining as the Oklahoma Workmens Compensation Court may deem necessary, shall be provided at the expense of the employer &/or its insurance company. To be sure, the Oklahoma Workmens Comp Act provides that all tuition related to any vocational rehabilitaion services shall be paid by the employer or the employer’s insurance company on a periodic basis directly to the school or facility providing the vocational rehabilitation services or training to the injured Tulsa or Oklahoma City area employee.
SCOPE & DURATION OF VOCATIONAL & JOB RETRAINING
Workers Compensation Court rules provide that any vocational rehabilitation services or training provided to an injured employee shall not extend for a period of more than fifty-two (52) weeks. This period may be extended upon proper & timely request by the injured employee &/or his or her attorneys or lawyers, for an additional fifty-two (52) weeks or portion thereof by special order of a judge of the Oklahoma City or Tulsa Workers Comp Court, after hearing & affording the interested parties an opportunity to be heard. A request for vocational rehabilitation services or training may be filed by an injured worker or his or her attorney or lawyer at any time after the date of injury but not later than sixty (60) days from the date of the final determination by the Tulsa or Oklahoma City Work Comp Court that permanent partial disability or PPD benefits are payable to the injured employee–although for all practible purposes a realistic & proper assessment of what services an injured employee may or may not need cannot realistically be made until he or she gets close to receiving or receives his or her permanent work restrictions from the treating doctor.
VOCATIONAL RETRAINING & PERMANENT TOTAL DISABILITY CLAIMS
ANY PERMANENT TOTAL AWARD IN OKLAHOMA MUST BE SUPPORTED BY A COMPETENT VOCATIONAL EXPERT OPINION THAT THE EMPLOYEE DOES NOT POSSESS TRANFERABLE SKILLS & CANNOT OTHERWISE BE RETRAINED TO PERFORM OTHER WORK. The Oklahoma City & Tulsa Workmans Compensation Court Rules clearly state that no injured worker shall be adjudicated or otherwise found to be permanently and totally disabled (“PTD”) unless he or she &/or his or her attorneys or lawyers have went forth & obtained an evaluation as to the practibility of restoring the injured employee to gainful employment through vocational rehabilitation services, job placement or retraining. Obviously to support the injured workers’ claim that he or she is permanently and totally disabled before either the Oklahoma City or Tulsa Workmans Comp Court, the hurt employee and his or her attorney or lawyer would have to have a fully compliant and credible opinion or report from a vocational expert stating that, as a result of the on-the-job injury, he or she is unable to return to any competitive work, does not possess transferable skills, and furthermore that they are unable to be retrained for alternative employment. The injured employee &/or his or her lawyer or attorney must be prepared to pay the full cost of this vocational evaluation & report.
PERMANENT TOTAL DISABILITY BENEFITS WILL NOT BE AWARDED BY EITHER THE OKLAHOMA CITY OR TULSA WORKMENS COMPENSATION COURT DURING ANY PERIOD IN WHICH THE INJURED EMPLOYEE REFUSES TO PARTICIPATE IN EITHER VOCATIONAL EVALUATION &/OR REHABILITATIVE SERVICES: The Oklahoma Workmens Comp Act provides that if an injured employee claiming permanent total disability status unreasonably refuses to be evaluated or to accept vocational rehabilitation services or retraining, permanent total disability benefits shall not be awarded by either the Oklahoma City or Tulsa Workers Compensation during the period of such refusal, and the employee shall be limited to permanent partial disability benefits only.
AN INJURED OKLAHOMA WORKER UNDER EVALUATION AS TO HIS OR HER PERMANENT TOTAL DISABILITY STATUS BY A JUDGE OF EITHER THE OKLAHOMA CITY OR TULSA WORKERS COMP COURT IS ENTITLED TO A WEEKLY CASH BENEFIT PAYMENT DURING ANY TIME PERIOD HE OR SHE IS ACTIVELY ATTENDING A RETRAINING PROGRAM: Oklahoma City & Tulsa Work Comp Court rules provide that during any period when a hurt worker is actively and in good faith being evaluated or participating in a retraining or job placement program for the purposes of evaluating his or her permanent total disability status, the injured employee shall be entitled to receive a weekly cash benefit payment which will be paid at exactly the same rate or amount as the claimant’s temporary total disability benefit check and will be paid for a period of up to fifty-two (52) weeks–which benefit, referred to by attorneys, lawyers, & judges at the Workmans Compensation Court as ’16.D. benefits’, may be extended by either the Oklahoma City or Tulsa Workmens Compensation Courts, as the case may be, for up to a maximum of an additional fity-two (52) week period.
TRAVEL, MEAL, MILEAGE, LODGING EXPENSES RELATED TO TRAINING
Where an injured Oklahoma City or Tulsa area employee’s rehablilitation program and retraining requires his or her residence at or near the facility or institution which is away from the hurt worker’s customary residence, the reasonable cost of the injured employee’s board, lodging, travel, tuition, books and necessary equipment in training shall be paid for by the employer &/or its insurance company–in addition to a weekly cash compensation benefit check to which the employee is otherwise entitled under the Oklahoma Workmans Comp Act.
In all cases Oklahoma City & Tulsa Workmens Comp Court rules provide that travel expenses incurred in obtaining vocational evaluations and vocational rehabilitation & retraining shall be paid to the injured worker. Any workers’ compensation cash payment check for an injured employee’s mileage & lodging expenses is limited to the provisions of the state travel reimbursement act. Meals will be reimbursed at the rate of Eight Dollars ($8.00) per meal per four hours of travel status, not to exceed three meals per day. Travel expenses paid to the hurt worker shall include only expenses for travel from the residence of the injured employee at the time of the evaluation or retraining, as applicable, not to exceed 600 miles round trip. Mileage is currently reimbursed to injured Oklahoma employees at the rate of fifty cents ($.50) per mile traveled. The employer &/or its insurance company shall not be liable for travel which is wholly within the limits of the city or town of the injured employee’s residence. Exceptions to this rule would be at the discretion of the Oklahoma City &/or Tulsa Workers Comp Court, as the case may be, and upon request of the hurt worker &/or his or her lawyers or attorneys, as the case may be.