What Is a Notice of Temporary Compensation Payable?

When an employee is injured at work and the employer is properly notified of the injury, the employer is required by law to respond in one of three ways within 21 days. The employer must issue either:

~ Notice of Compensation Payable;
~ Notice of Temporary Compensation Payable; or
~ Notice of Denial.

The Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act allows an employer to issue a Notice of Temporary Compensation Payable (NTCP) to initiate compensation payments without admitting liability while they allegedly investigate the claim. The NTCP does NOT mean the employer has accepted your injury as work-related. The NTCP can be a full NTCP, where you receive indemnity and medical benefits while the insurer investigates your claim, or it can be a medical-only NTCP, where you are still working, but the employer is temporarily paying your medical bills while they investigate.

The employer has 90 days to investigate the claim with an NTCP, but they can either accept or deny your claim at any point within those 90 days. If the employer does not provide you with any other documentation during the 90 days, the NTCP automatically converts to a full Notice of Compensation Payable and your injury is accepted. If that happens, you need to make sure the description of injury is correct. If the description of injury is not correct, you should contact our office for assistance.

The NTCP can only be stopped with what is called a Notice Stopping Temporary Compensation Payable and a Notice of Denial. Recently, we have been seeing a trend where an injured employee receives a NTCP, receives treatment within the 90 days, and is able to return to work within the 90-day period. In that situation, rather than issuing a Supplemental Agreement or Notice of Suspension/Modification, the employers have been pulling the NTCP and stopping it with the Notice Stopping the Temporary Compensation Payable and a Notice of Denial.

If this happens, your employer and its insurance company officially are declaring that you were never injured at work. This can have serious implications regarding potential future benefits that may result from the initial injury. If you have received a NTCP, you should contact our offices to make sure that your rights under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act are protected. Our certified Pennsylvania workers’ compensation lawyers can help.