If you get hurt on the job, don’t do this….

So, it all started when when I crashed my bike while working as a mountain bike instructor teaching jumps to a kid. Ugh, lol, I know it’s dumb.

Being on the clock, I immediately called my boss who encouraged me to go to a specific urgent care to use their workers comp insurance, which I did. Three visits and negative x rays later and workers comp cleared me to go back to work, but my shoulder was jacked. They said they would be referring me to PT and that they would call to schedule.

A week or so went by and they hadn’t scheduled PT. I had also received bills in the mail for the full amount of each visit. Not wanting to get more bills, not knowing how insurance works, and anxious to start my rehab, I used my own insurance to find a PT I liked since my deductible had already been met.

Of course, I talked to HR and my boss about the bills and it turns out they had outdated workers comp insurance info at the urgent care. They got this fixed and the bills were taken care of, but I did mention that I was using my own insurance for PT and was never told that this was the wrong thing to do. Two months of PT and no progress, so I had an MRI and after consulting with two orthopedic doctors, I was recommended surgery and I had it.

Now, months out from the surgery and my personal insurance has requested that my PT refund them for all visits and they went back and reversed the approvals of my mri/ortho/surgery.

Around the same time, I got a letter from the workers comp insurance stating that my case was closed and showing the amounts they paid for those initial urgent care visits. This was the first time I ever saw my workers comp insurance company name, my case number, my adjusters name and their contact information. I later learned that per my state’s (Utah) labor commission, my employer was supposed to give me a copy of their injury report (form 122) as well as “the injured workers rights and responsibilities” (form 100). They did none of this and I believe that if they had, I would have not thought that it was okay to use my regular insurance.

Anyways, after receiving those notices I finically contacted my workers comp insurance adjuster and submitted all my PT notes and hospital bills to her, as well as contacting the hospitals billing department and had them re send the claims over to workers comp. Now, I’m waiting for the workers comp medical direction to hopefully approve all of my care.

I feel absolutely horrible for the mess that I created for the providers and insurance agents and even my employer, though I feel very let down by my employer as well. So… is there anything more I can do right now? I know I fucked up, so no sense tell me what I should have done, but I got injured on the job and I don’t believe I should be stuck with the bills. At this point I’m expecting the worst… Do I beg my employer to pay? Do I need a lawyer? Do I start allocating funds now cause I’m definitely gonna be stuck paying this? For the record, if I did have to pay out of pocket I wouldn’t go bankrupt but it would definitely hit me hard.

Tldr: used personal insurance when I should have used workers comp, now personal insurance reversing claims and I’m trying to get workers comp to pay. Am I screwed?