Nevada workers’ compensation is a no-fault insurance system that pays for your medical treatment and replaces part of your lost wages if you’re hurt on the job, in exchange for giving up the right to sue your employer over the injury. Coverage starts your first day of work, and nearly every employer in the state is required to carry it.1Nevada Division of Industrial Relations. Employers Frequently Asked Questions What matters most after an injury is hitting the reporting deadlines, understanding which benefit you qualify for, and knowing how to push back if a claim gets denied.
Who the System Covers
Nevada law applies to every employer with at least one employee, and coverage begins on day one — not after a probationary period.2Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 616B – Industrial Insurance If your employer failed to carry insurance, you’re still entitled to benefits, and the employer is personally liable for every cost of your injury.3Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 616D – Industrial Insurance: Prohibited Acts and Penalties
Independent contractors are the main exception. Nevada defines a contractor as someone who performs work for a specified result and is controlled only as to that result, not the methods used to reach it.4Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 616A – Industrial Insurance: General Provisions The label on your paperwork doesn’t settle the question. If the business tells you how, when, and where to do the job, you’re likely an employee regardless of what the contract calls you.
Reporting the Injury and Filing the Claim
There are two steps, and each has its own clock.
Step One: Form C-1 Within Seven Days
You must give your employer written notice of a workplace injury as soon as possible, and no later than seven days after the accident.5Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 616C.015 – Notice of Injury or Death: Requirements, Availability of Form, Retention, Notice by Leased Employee The reporting form is called Form C-1, “Notice of Injury or Occupational Disease,” and your supervisor or HR department should have it.6Nevada Department of Industrial Relations. Notice of Injury or Occupational Disease Include the exact date, time, and location of what happened, describe the mechanism of injury, and list your symptoms. Vague descriptions invite disputes later.
Step Two: Form C-4 at the Doctor
Go see a doctor. Your treating physician is responsible for completing Form C-4 (Employee’s Claim for Compensation/Report of Initial Treatment) within three working days of your first visit and sending it to the employer’s insurer.7Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 616C – Industrial Insurance: Benefits for Injuries or Death The C-4 captures the physician’s findings and opinion on whether your condition is work-related. Check your personal information on the form; errors there slow processing.
The 30-Day Insurer Decision
Once the insurer learns of the accident, it has 30 days to accept or deny your claim in writing. Both you and the Division Administrator receive the denial notice if the claim is turned down.7Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 616C – Industrial Insurance: Benefits for Injuries or Death The clock runs from when the insurer learns of the accident, not from the day it receives the C-4, so early reporting shortens the wait.
Medical Treatment
An accepted claim covers all reasonably necessary treatment for the injury: doctor visits, surgery, hospital care, prescriptions, and physical therapy. There’s no copay or deductible on your end for authorized care. The insurer selects or approves your treating physician, though you can request a change if the relationship isn’t working. Medical benefits continue as long as treatment remains necessary, even after your wage-replacement payments end.
Wage-Replacement Benefits
Nevada uses three different wage-replacement benefits depending on how long you’re out and whether the injury leaves lasting damage. The base rate for all of them is 66⅔ percent of your average monthly wage.8Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 616C.475 – Amount and Duration of Compensation, Limitations, Cessation of Payments
Temporary Total Disability (TTD)
If your injury keeps you from earning your full wages, you qualify for TTD once your incapacity has lasted at least five consecutive days, or five cumulative days within a 20-day window. After you clear that threshold, payments are calculated back to the date of injury.7Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 616C – Industrial Insurance: Benefits for Injuries or Death For fiscal year 2026, the maximum average monthly wage used in the calculation is $8,202.80, which caps the monthly TTD benefit at $5,468.53 (roughly $1,257.55 per week). Workers earning less than the cap receive 66⅔ percent of their actual wages.9Division of Industrial Relations. Maximum Compensation FY26 Memo TTD runs until your doctor releases you to work or you reach maximum medical improvement.
Permanent Partial Disability (PPD)
When treatment ends and you’ve reached maximum medical improvement but still have lasting impairment, a rating physician examines you and assigns a whole-person impairment percentage.10Nevada Attorney for Injured Workers. Permanent Partial Disability That percentage combines with your average monthly wage and age to produce the award amount, which the insurer may offer as a lump sum.
Permanent Total Disability (PTD)
If the injury is severe enough that you can never return to any gainful employment, PTD pays 66⅔ percent of your average monthly wage for as long as the total disability lasts, with annual cost-of-living increases.7Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 616C – Industrial Insurance: Benefits for Injuries or Death An additional allowance for a constant attendant can be added if you can’t physically care for yourself. The insurer can re-evaluate your status over time, but it carries the burden of proving recovery.
Death Benefits for Survivors
When a workplace injury or occupational disease causes death, the insurer pays burial expenses up to $10,000 plus the cost of transporting the remains. A surviving spouse receives 66⅔ percent of the deceased worker’s average monthly wage for life. If the deceased had children who are not the surviving spouse’s, the benefit splits in half — 50 percent to the spouse, 50 percent shared among all children.7Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 616C – Industrial Insurance: Benefits for Injuries or Death
With no surviving spouse, children under 18 share 66⅔ percent of the average monthly wage equally. If there’s no spouse or minor child, dependent parents or siblings may qualify, with the total capped at 66⅔ percent of the average monthly wage.
Vocational Rehabilitation
If your injury permanently keeps you from your old job and your employer can’t offer you a position paying at least 80 percent of your pre-injury wage with equivalent benefits, you become eligible for vocational rehabilitation. The same 80 percent threshold applies if you try to find comparable work with another employer and can’t.7Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 616C – Industrial Insurance: Benefits for Injuries or Death A program can include retraining, education, and job placement, and you may receive maintenance payments for living expenses during it. If the first program fails, you can request a second on good cause; a third requires the original employer’s approval.
How Benefits Interact With Other Programs
Taxes. Workers’ compensation benefits paid for an occupational injury or illness are completely exempt from federal income tax, whether paid as TTD, PPD, PTD, or death benefits.11IRS. Publication 525 – Taxable and Nontaxable Income Retirement plan distributions you take because you retired due to injury are not exempt.
Social Security Disability. If you receive both workers’ compensation and SSDI, federal law caps the combined total at 80 percent of your pre-disability earnings. The SSA reduces your SSDI check by any excess until you hit full retirement age or workers’ comp stops.12Social Security Administration. How Workers’ Compensation and Other Disability Payments May Affect Your Benefits Lump-sum settlements can trigger the same offset, so report any settlement to Social Security.
Job protection and FMLA. A workers’ comp claim does not by itself protect your job. If your employer has 50 or more employees and you’ve worked there at least 12 months, your injury probably qualifies as a serious health condition under the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the employer can run FMLA concurrently with your comp absence.13eCFR. 29 CFR 825.702 – Interaction With Federal and State Anti-Discrimination Laws Once 12 weeks run out, FMLA protection ends even if you’re still receiving comp. If your doctor clears you for light duty and your employer offers it, refusing the position may end your wage benefits. A lasting disability may also give you reasonable-accommodation rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Medicare. If you’re on Medicare, or expect to enroll within 30 months of a settlement, workers’ compensation is the primary payer for injury-related care, and any conditional Medicare payments must be repaid from your settlement. Depending on the dollar size of the settlement, parties may need to set aside funds through a Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside Arrangement.14Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set Aside Arrangements Skipping that step can leave you personally responsible for future injury-related care Medicare would otherwise refuse to cover.
If Your Claim Is Denied
You have 70 days from the date the insurer mailed its determination to request a hearing before a hearing officer.15Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 616C.315 – Request for Hearing, Forms for Request to Be Provided by Insurer You can also request a hearing if you mailed the insurer a written request and it failed to respond within 30 days. The hearing officer reviews evidence and testimony from both sides and issues a decision.
Either party can appeal that decision to an appeals officer within 30 days. The appeals officer sets a hearing on the merits within 90 days, with at least 30 days’ written notice to the parties. Filing the appeal doesn’t automatically pause the hearing officer’s decision, but you can request a stay, and the decision is paused while the stay request is pending.7Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 616C – Industrial Insurance: Benefits for Injuries or Death After the appeals officer rules, further review is available in the Nevada courts. The 70-day and 30-day windows are firm. Missing them is one of the most common ways injured workers lose benefits they would otherwise receive.