Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

Refusing modified duty should be fixed by going to the treating physician and getting an Off Work Order or getting so many detailed and specific restrictions that the employer either cannot provide modified work or the modified work you perform doesn't make you work.

State Disability Insurance -- SDI -- through the state's Employment Development Dept (EDD) will be denied when you answer the question that modified work was offered and refused.

Whether you have some private short-term disability insurance that possibly covers you staying home when you refused to attend modified work is impossible to say (but it's very, very unlikely).

IF YOU CANNOT PERFORM the modified work the real solution is to TRY the modified work the doc said you could do for about 45 minutes, and fail miserably at it, return to the supervisor and insist on going to either the treating doc that said you could do this or to the local Emergency Room.

If you keep trying modified work and failing, the treating doc is more likely to place you on Temporary Total Disability.

CAVEAT!! If the treating doc is 'in bed' with the insurance adjuster, you will always be returned to modified work, even with an open fracture or sucking chest wound. I've had 'clinic' doctors send people with uncasted broken bones back to light work in a sling or brace in horrific pain...they seem not to fear any malpractice claims.

If you have a treating physician 'in bed' with the insurer, spend 100% of you time research REAL doctors on that insurer's MPN (Medical Provider Network) and get into a real doc on the MPN who will write you are TTD.