If you need a new mattress (is yours worn out?) or a firmer mattress, chances are worker's compensation is not going to spring for it.

Apparently a lot of mattress companies suggest that getting a prescription from your doctor is all you need to do, but if the industrial insurance statutes in your state do not allow for purchase of personal items such as furniture/mattresses, it is not going to happen. I know some folks, after receiving a settlement, have used the money to purchase things that make their injury easier to live with: car with automatic transmission when using a clutch is more difficult because of injury, new beds, bathroom remodels to include safety features or to make them accessible for a wheelchair. But that is their choice on how to spend their settlement money. If you have heard of injured workers getting new beds, this may be what has happened. In my 13 years of experience in worker's compensation isnurance in 6 states I have never heard of industrial insurance issuing a new mattress and box spring following an injury.

I did, once, have a man discharged from the hospital following back surgery live on the ground in a tent in a campground in the middle of winter because he had no home to go home to. I actually requested an advance on his PPD award so he could get into an apartment and off the ground. But even then it is rare to get advances except in emergencies.