FAQ: Workers' Comp Eligibility

Your hearing loss claim may be compensable, but it may be difficult to prove the required details. To make a successful hearing loss claim, you must prove a specified degree of exposure (loudness) for a specified period of time (duration).

Any illness or disease scientifically proved to be caused, aggravated, or accelerated by your employment is compensable under the Occupational Disease Act. The benefits provided by the Occupational Disease Act are nearly identical with those provided by the Workers’ Compensation Act.

Among those illnesses found to be compensable include illnesses involving dust inhalation, silicosis, asbestosis, diseases associated with the inhalation of toxic gases, vapors or fumes, dermatitis, radiation poisoning, occupational deafness, bronchitis, asthma, and many other diseases not specifically listed.

If you fail to file and occupational disease claim within the time limits provided by law you may lose all benefits forever. Unless an occupational disease disables you within two years of the date of last exposure to the hazards of the disease, in most cases, no compensation is payable.

Under the Occupational Disease Act, you may be entitled to compensation if your pre-existing illness or disease was aggravated or disabling because of the exposure of the employment.

If you suffer a serious and permanent disfigurement to your hand, head, face, neck, arms, legs below the knee, or chest above the armpits because of a job-related injury you may be entitled to PPD benefits.

The law requires you to wait at least six months from the day of injury to determine if a disfigurement resulting from the accident is legally serious and permanent.

In order to qualify for benefits under the Illinois Workers Compensation Act, you must be able to prove each of the following elements:

• That on the date of accident your employer was subject to the Illinois Workers’ Compensation or Occupational Diseases Act.
• That you employed by the company on the date of the accident
• That on the date of accident, you sustained injuries [or acquired a disease] from usual and customary work activity
• That your medical condition was either caused, aggravated or accelerated by the injury or exposure alleged on the date of accident.
• That you gave the employer notice of the accident or exposure within 45 days of the date of accident
• Your earnings during the fifty-two weeks before the accident.

After you have established your eligibility, and all of your medical care is complete, you may still have to prove:

• That the medical care received was necessary to cure or relieve the effects of your injury or illness.
• The total amount spent on your related medical care
• The dates of all lost time caused by your illness or injury.
• You were inability to perform light duty, or its unavailability.
• The nature and extent of your injury [permanent, disfigurement, career ending wage loss, total disability, death, etc.]
• The merits of rehabilitation and retraining.

Under the provisions of the Illinois Act, almost all workers are entitled to receive compensation for an injury received on the job. You may file a claim for Workers’ Compensation Benefits in Illinois if:

• You are injured in Illinois, or
• Were hired in Illinois, even though the accident occurred in another state, or
• Most of your work is in Illinois, even though you may have been hired or injured out of state [for example, Indiana or Wisconsin] or,
• You were hired in Illinois and were sent to work in another state.