Ohio Workers' Compensation Guide:
Filing the Claim
In order for an injured worker to receive benefits under the Ohio
workers' compensation system, the injured worker must file a workers'
compensation claim.A claim can be filed by using the FROI-1 form. [This form can be downloaded from the Bureau of Workers' Compensation web site.] Many claims are now electronically filed by the Managed Care Organization, when an injured worker seeks medical treatment.
It is the injured worker's responsibility to ensure that a claim has been filed.
If a claim has been filed, the injured worker will receive a "claim number" from the Bureau. If you have not received a claim number, check to ensure that a claim has actually been filed.
Make sure that the claim number you have is a Bureau of Workers' Compensation claim number. Bureau of Workers' Compensation claim numbers currently begin with the last two digits of the year of injury (for example, an 2000 injury claim would begin "00-"). If you do not have a Bureau of Workers' Compensation claim number, check to ensure that a claim has actually been filed.
The claim number identifies the claim and should be put on all documents filed with the Bureau or the Commission.
Note that there are time limits for filing workers' compensation claims. If a claim is not filed within the time limit it will be forever barred. Because the issue of time limits is important and potentially confusing, if you have a specific question about the time limits for filing a claim, you should contact an attorney.