You are entitled to reasonable medical treatment to cure or relieve work-related injuries and illnesses. The doctors who treat you must follow treatment guidelines referred to as the medical treatment utilization schedule (MTUS). Only the treatment that meets the guidelines must be approved.

All employers or claims administrators handling workers’ compensation claims are required by law to have a program called Utilization Review (UR). This program is used to decide whether the treatment recommended by your doctor is both reasonable and necessary within the accepted medical guidelines.

Reasonable financial reimbursement for round trip mileage expenses incurred for medical appointments, pharmacy trips, diagnostics, physical therapy, etc. when you use your private vehicle or authorized alternative.

Permanent Disability is any lasting disability from a work injury or illness that affects the injured workers’ ability to earn a living. If the injury or illness results in permanent disability the injured worker is entitled to permanent disability benefits, even if the injured worker can return to work.

Your primary treating physician or a doctor who is a Qualified Medical Evaluator (QME) will examine you and will determine your impairment level, which is the level of how your ability to work was affected by your injury.

This benefit is not administered by the City of San Diego but by the State of California: Return-to-Work Supplemental Program.

The applicant’s date of injury must be on or after Jan. 1, 2013, and he/she must have received a Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit Voucher for said injury.

The Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit (SJDB) comes in the form of a non-transferable voucher that can be used to pay for educational retraining or skill enhancement at state-approved or accredited schools. The amount of the voucher is dependent on your date of injury and other factors.

Temporary Disability pays two-thirds of the gross (pre-tax) wages you lose while you are recovering from a work-related injury. However, you cannot receive more than the maximum weekly amount set by law. You must report to your Claims Representative all forms of income you receive from work, including wages, food, lodging, tips, commissions, overtime and bonuses. You must report earnings from work you did at other jobs at the time you were injured.

Temporary Disability (TD) payments begin when your doctor determines that you can't do your usual work for more than three days, when you are hospitalized overnight, or when your department is unable to accommodate your work restrictions. Payments must be made every two weeks. Generally, Temporary Disability stops when you return to work, or when the doctor releases you to work or determines that your injury has reached maximum medical improvement.

Industrial Leave (IL) benefits are governed by Administrative Regulation 63 and they are an enhanced version of Temporary Disability. They allow full-time employees to obtain 2,080 hours of full, regular salary. If they are part-time employees, they are entitled to receive Industrial Leave for the number of hours they normally work in an average year.

4850 Benefits are governed by Labor Code 4850 and they are also an enhanced version of Temporary Disability, but for safety workers (Fire/Police/full-time Lifeguards). 4850 benefits provide full, regular salary for up to the number of hours normally worked in a year.

Additional information on these benefits can also be found within Administrative Regulation 62.

Death Benefits are payments to a spouse, children or other dependents if an employee passes away from a work-related injury or illness. This includes reasonable burial expenses, not exceeding $5,000 for injuries before Jan. 1, 2013, and $10,000 for injuries on or after Jan. 1, 2013. The amount of the death benefit depends on the number of total and/or partial dependents.

Please use this link to see more details on the dollar amounts provided - Death Benefits.