GLOSSARY · 28 TERMS · NOTHING GATED

The words on your remittance,
defined properly.

EOR. Short-pay. Auth burn-down. W3235W2. Form 25N. MARFS Chapter 25. Every one of these has a plain-English answer and a reason it matters to your Friday — and almost none of them have one anywhere else on the internet.

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Getting paid
EORThe written explanation a workers’-comp payer sends with (or instead of) a check, saying what it paid on each line of your bill and why. Short-payA bill the payer paid — for less than you billed, without denying it. One check, many claimantsThe way workers’-comp payers actually pay: a single check covering bills for a dozen different injured workers at once, which you then allocate line by line against what you billed. AgingYour unpaid bills sorted by how long they have been unpaid, and by who owes them. Timely filingThe deadline for getting a bill in front of the payer at all.
The money
Fee scheduleThe published price list a state sets for workers’-comp services. UnitSix minutes — a tenth of an hour — the increment time-based workers’-comp work is billed in. W-codeOhio BWC’s service codes for vocational rehabilitation — W3207, W3220, W3230, W3235 and the rest — priced by rule and billed in tenths of an hour. MARFS Chapter 25The vocational chapter of Washington L&I’s Medical Aid Rules and Fee Schedules — where 0810V, the VRC time code, is priced at $11.05 a six-minute unit. Case levelOhio’s complexity rating on a vocational rehabilitation case — 1, 2 or 3 — and the reason the same activity has three different codes and three different rates.
The forms
CMS-1500The universal professional claim form — and the reason a busy vocational-rehab week ends up spread across three of them. RH-10Ohio BWC’s job-search contact log — the record of where an injured worker applied, who they spoke to, and what came of it. Form 25NThe North Carolina Industrial Commission form by which a carrier assigns a rehabilitation professional to a workers’-comp claim. R-2 planMinnesota’s rehabilitation plan filing — what the QRC intends to do on a claim — e-filed through Work Comp Campus, with R-3 and R-8 following it through the case. VR-44SThe Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court’s billing form in its VR series — what a court-certified counsellor bills on. IWRPMassachusetts’ Individual Written Rehabilitation Program — the approved plan a certified provider works to, and invoices against, after an OEVR screening. Board Rule 200.2The Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation rule behind registered rehabilitation suppliers — who may do this work in Georgia, and the registration that has to be renewed every year. Work Comp CampusMinnesota’s Department of Labor and Industry filing system — where the R-forms go.
The people and the payers
VRCMOhio’s term for the professional who runs an injured worker’s return-to-work plan and bills her time to the claim’s MCO in W-codes. QRCMinnesota’s statutory title for the vocational rehabilitation professional on a workers’-comp claim: registered with the Department of Labor and Industry, paid an indexed statutory hourly rate by the carrier. MCOOhio’s Managed Care Organizations — the private companies that manage the medical side of every state-fund claim, authorise your services and pay your bills. TPAThe company that administers workers’-comp claims on behalf of a carrier or a self-insured employer — and, for most nurse case managers, the entity that actually receives the invoice. AdjusterThe person handling the claim at the carrier, TPA or MCO. Self-insured employerAn employer that pays its own workers’-comp claims instead of buying insurance — usually through a TPA. Monopolistic state fundA state where employers must buy workers’-comp coverage from the state itself.
The daily work
AuthorisationThe payer’s approval of specific services, a number of units and a date range. Tracking logThe weekly narrative record of what you did on a case, per claimant — the document that travels behind the bill and answers for it later. LOEPA loss-of-earning-power evaluation — what an injured worker can still earn after the injury.
Why a glossary

Because the definitions that exist were written for someone else.

Search “EOR” and you get a health-plan explainer. Search “unit” and you get a physical-therapy article about eight-minute rules. Neither is wrong; neither is about the bill in front of you.

These pages are written for one reader: someone who bills a workers’-compensation payer for her time. Every entry says what the term is, why it matters to that person specifically, and where to go next — the state page, the guide, or the part of the software that handles it.

Facts carry a date and an agency. Where our research did not establish something — Massachusetts rate exhibits, North Carolina market rates, Nebraska’s fee basis — the page says so instead of guessing. That is not modesty. It is that this profession is a few thousand people who all know each other, and being confidently wrong in front of them is expensive.

Read the state billing guides → Find your state →

Questions, answered.

Is anything here gated?

No. No email box, no download form, no signup. Every definition, rate and rule number is on the page.

A definition here is wrong. Who do I tell?

Call 1-877-843-1717 or email admin@onservice.us and we will fix the page. Being corrected is a much better outcome for us than being quietly wrong in front of a profession where everybody talks to everybody.

Why are some entries state-specific?

Because the vocabulary is. A QRC exists in Minnesota, an MCO in Ohio, a Form 25N in North Carolina. Pretending there is one national vocabulary is exactly the mistake that makes generic billing software useless for this work.

How current are the rates quoted in these entries?

July 2026, with the agency named. Fee schedules move on their own cadences — Ohio BWC in October, Washington L&I in July, Minnesota indexed annually — so verify before billing from any figure on any website.

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