Pennsylvania: Late Notice of Employer’s Uninsured Status by Worker Limits Both Medical and Wage Loss Benefits

Pursuant to 77 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 2703(b), if an injured worker fails to notify the Uninsured Employers Guaranty Fund (Fund) within 45 days after the worker knows that the employer is uninsured, the Fund is not obligated to provide “compensation” from the date of the injury, but rather from the date the Fund gets notice of the claim. A Pennsylvania appellate court held that where a worker failed to provide notice to the Fund within 45 days, it was error for the Board to award medical benefits as of the date of the worker’s injury, while limiting the Fund’s liability for wage loss benefits to the date the Fund received notice of the injury. The term “compensation” applied to both medical benefits and wage loss benefits, said the appellate court. Because the worker’s notification to the Fund was late, the Fund was not required to pay for medical benefits prior to the date it received formal notice of the claim.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Commonwealth v. Workers’ Comp. Appeal Bd. (Kendrick and Timberline Tree & Landscaping LLC), 2016 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 214 (May 9, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 102.04.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law