Welcome to the WORKERS' COMPENSATION section.

Dr. Le is an Industrial Disability Examiner and a Qualified Medical Evaluator appointed by the Industrial Medical Council. To assist you with any Workers' Compensation questions you may have, please review the following information.

If you believe you have been injured at work, you must immediately notify your supervisor. For specific injuries, you must report the date that the incident occurred. For Cumulative or Repetitive Stress Injury, you must report the date you first suffered as a result of the injury plus the date you knew or concluded that the cause was your present or previous employment. You have 30 days from the day you first suffer to report the injury.

Workers’ Compensation covers:
1. Medical Treatment (in the Workers’ Compensation system, this includes any treatment necessary to cure or relieve the industrial injury)
2. Temporary Disability Payments
3. Permanent Disability Payments
4. Vocational Rehabilitations Services
5. Death Benefit

You will need to file “Employee’s Claim For Workers’ Compensation Benefits” which can be obtained from your supervisor. Due to new regulations, your employer and their insurer has control over which physicians assesse the injured worker. You will have to go to three different physicians within the company’s Medical Provider Network (MPN). Dr. Mike Le is in most companies' MPNs. Once assessed by the physicians, you may choose your own chiropractor and are entitled to up to 24 visits per injury. Alternatively, you can pre-designate your own chiropractor to act as your Primary Care Physician in the Workers’ Compensation system.

Contact Dr. Mike Le for a consultation and guidance with the process on 415.345.8587 for (M,W, F) or 415.682.7798 (T, Th, Sat.) or email info@sfchiropractor.org.

NOTICE: Making a false or fraudulent Workers' Compensation Claim is a felony subject to up to five years in prison or a fine of up to $50,000 or double the value of the fraud, whichever is greater, or by both imprisonment and fine.

Repetitive Stress or Cumulative Injury

The 1997 Occupational Safety and Health reported that “in the past 10 years, more and more cases of workers afflicted with carpal tunnel syndrome have been reported in medical literature. One reason for this increase may be that automation and job specialization have fragmented workers’ task to the point where a given job may only involve only a few (hand and wrist) manipulations performed thousands of times per workday.”

People with RSI can report symptoms ranging from weakness and clumsiness in the hands, together with altered sensations such as numbness of the thumb, index finger, the middle and radial part of the ring finger. Their problems can be so serious that they incapacitate the hands and fingers, cause pain and discomfort and loss of time and money in the workplace.

Many medical professionals attempt to resolve these problems by surgical procedures, cutting the ligament or increasing the space in the carpal tunnel. However, about 80% of those who undergo such surgery continue to experience pain and need further surgery.

Chiropractic believes that surgical procedure is a radical treatment and should only be used as a last resort. Chiropractic treatment is non-invasive and the effective way to alleviate or cure such problems. This form of treatment should be sought before having someone invade your body.