Short answer. Both. Article 185 of the Labor Code entitles an employee who contracts sickness or sustains an injury to medical services and appliances from the System for the whole period of his disability, not merely to cash income benefits. The medical side is capped by the expense limits the Commission prescribes.
What the law says
Immediately after an employee contracts sickness or sustains an injury, he shall be provided by the System during the subsequent period of his disability with such medical services and appliances as the nature of his sickness or injury and progress of his recovery may require, subject to the expense limitation prescribed by the Commission.
Labor Code, Article 185 — Medical Services During Disability. Read the full provision →
Medical services are a benefit in their own right
The article is emphatic about timing and scope: the services are due Immediately after an employee contracts sickness or sustains an injury, and they run during the subsequent period of his disability. So this is not a single reimbursement at the end. It is a continuing entitlement that tracks the recovery. The word appliances matters too — the benefit is not confined to consultations and confinement but extends to the equipment the condition calls for, such as prosthetics, braces or mobility aids, where the nature of the injury requires them. Income benefits for lost earnings sit alongside this; one does not swallow the other.
What 'as the nature of his injury may require' limits
The measure is medical necessity, not preference. What is due is what the nature of the sickness or injury and the progress of recovery may require — which means the treatment can be scaled up as a condition worsens and scaled back as it improves. It also means the benefit does not extend to whatever a claimant chooses to spend. The article then adds an express ceiling: everything is subject to the expense limitation prescribed by the Commission. Those limits are set by regulation and change over time, so the amount recoverable in any given year is a matter of the current schedule rather than something the Code fixes.
What the article does not do
It does not make your employer your insurer. The obligation stated here is on the System, funded by employer contributions, and it is separate from any damages claim against a negligent employer or third party and separate from company HMO cover. It does not decide compensability either: the medical benefit assumes the sickness or injury is work-connected, and if that link is contested the claim can fail before the question of bills arises. Nor does it override the reporting machinery — treatment falls outside the scheme if the injury is never reported and the claim is never lodged within the periods the rules set.
Practical steps
Report the incident to your employer in writing the day it happens and keep a copy, because a contemporaneous report is what usually settles the work-connection question later. Have the injury recorded by the attending physician in the prescribed forms, and keep every official receipt, prescription and diagnostic result. If your employer discourages you from filing, or tells you the company will simply shoulder the bills quietly, note that this does not extinguish the statutory benefit and may leave you worse off if the condition proves lasting. Where a claim is denied, the denial should give reasons — get them in writing before responding.
Related provisions
- Labor Code, Article 185 — Medical Services During Disability
- Labor Code, Article 187 — Duties Of Attending Physician