File a First Report of Injury with the Iowa Workers' Compensation Commissioner within 4 days after you learn the injury caused more than 3 days of lost work. Your employee also must give you notice within 90 days of the injury. If there is a separate injury claim against a driver, contractor, or road crew, the usual Iowa lawsuit deadline is 2 years from the crash.

From the insurer's perspective, they want you to believe one simple rule: workers' comp is the only remedy. That message helps them close the file fast, control reserves before year-end renewal, and push a low settlement. They rely on the true part of the rule - under Iowa law, an employee usually cannot sue the employer for ordinary on-the-job negligence if workers' compensation applies.

Reality: that does not mean your employee "can't sue anyone."

In Iowa, workers' comp bars most claims against the employer, but it does not erase a third-party claim against someone else who caused the crash or made the roadway unsafe. In a Des Moines delivery or service-vehicle wreck, that can include:

• another driver,
• a road contractor that left a steel plate unsecured,
• a commercial vehicle company,
• or a governmental entity, with separate notice rules depending on who controlled the road.

That distinction matters financially. If your employee was hit by another vehicle or injured by a dangerous road condition, workers' comp may pay medical care and wage benefits first, while a separate liability claim can seek damages comp does not fully cover. The comp carrier may later assert subrogation rights against that recovery.

Insurers also push the myth that if your employee already used health insurance or treated at a place like UnityPoint Des Moines before transfer to University of Iowa Hospitals, the liability claim is weakened. It is not. The key issues are fault, notice, records, and deadlines - not which card was handed over in the ER.