About 10 years ago, I was appointed to a committee to design a web site that would let injured workers (as well as doctors and employers) see the same information that Labor & Industries claims mangers see. After a long process, L&I launched its “Claim and Account Center,” known as CAC. It is a web site that allows any injured worker to look at the same information that L&I uses to administer the claim.
The web site was designed to be easy to use without any real computer skills or training. It was tested on random workers, who all felt it was a great tool. It is easy, it is free, and it will answer many of your questions.
How do you get started? First, you need to open an account with L&I. Go to https://secureaccess.wa.gov/. The page will look like this:
You want to click in the Red words, “Create one”. Fill out all of the information and select a user ID and Password. You will use these each time you enter CAC. Once you have your account, enter the website and click “Login” to enter the CAC.
Click on the Claim Status button, type in your claim number and click “Get”. You should then have your claim screen open. It should look like this:
Notice the first page has lots of information listed about your claim. In part, the screen lists who your claims manager is. It also identifies the attending physician.
On the left side is a menu of things you can review. The most important are the Claim file notes, which is a diary kept by the claims manager. You should look at these frequently because each time the claims manager works on your claim, he/she writes a note. Also, it can give you a heads up if your claims manager is planning on doing something potentially harmful to you.
You can also access all papers created by L&I or sent to them by clicking on Imaged Documents. For example, you can see upcoming payments, all medical reports, including IMEs.
The imaged document screen will look like this:
Also, you can click on Claim imaged documents and review every single document in your claim file, by date. So, if you send something to L&I, it should be imaged and found a few days later. You can print, save or even email the imaged documents.
So, give it a try. It is free, easy to use and up to date.
Douglas Wyckoff
Williams, Wyckoff & Ostrander, PLLC
