Filing a Claim

Workers’ compensation benefits are designed to return those suffering a compensable workplace injury to their health and their jobs as quickly as possible.

View our Beginner’s Guide to Tennessee Workers’ Compensation.

Report Your Injury Immediately

If you are injured at work, you should report your injury to your supervisor immediately. Employees generally have fifteen calendar days from when they knew or should have known about their suspected injury to report it to their employer—effective for injuries occurring on or after July 1, 2016. Reporting the injury to your employer starts the claims process. The employer is required to report it to their insurance adjuster, which is the filing of the claim.

An insurance adjuster should call or contact the injured worker within 48 hours.

For treatment to be covered by workers' compensation insurance, you should seek care from a physician you choose a from a panel, which your adjuster (or employer) is responsible for creating.

Injured workers will be provided with the appropriate medical treatment, deemed medically necessary by an authorized treating physician, to recover from a compensable work-related injury or illness. If the authorized treating physician reduces the hours of work or takes an injured worker off work, lost wages may be replaced with temporary disability benefits, depending on how much time is missed.

Most employers and insurance adjusters provide benefits without assistance from us. If you are not having problems with your claim, you do not need to contact us.

It is illegal for an employer to fire an employee for reporting a work injury. If an injured employee is fired and believes it was for reporting a work injury, the employee may wish to consult an attorney.

If you are an employee of Tennessee State Government, there are a few differences in the way your claim is handled.

Need More Help?

If you have additional questions, please call 615-532-4812 or 800-332-2667 or contact us by email at wc.info@tn.gov. Find out about other available assistance programs by contacting an ombudsman.