Insurance companies can deny workers’ compensation benefits for many reasons.  Perhaps the most common example is a lack of a connection between doing one’s job and the injury or illness. Missouri Revised Statutes §287.020 provides that a workplace accident is an unexpected traumatic event or unexpected strain that occurs during a single work shift. If an insurance company does not make this connection, they will likely deny the claim.
Similarly, you may be entitled to collect benefits by showing the presence of an occupational disease. Under Missouri Revised Statutes §287.067, this is a medical condition, such as cancer, that arises out of doing one’s job. Insurance companies may have difficulty making the connection between the workplace and these diseases and deny your claim.
Workers’ compensation insurance companies have a variety of additional justifications for denying coverage. These can also include a lack of notice to an employer, a failure to follow up with medical treatment, etc. However, just because a profit-driven insurance company has denied your claim, it does not mean that you are not entitled to benefits. Appealing a workers’ compensation decision in Columbia could yield workers the benefits they were previously denied.