Under the current law, injured workers must seek treatment from a medical provider chosen by the employer’s workers’ compensation insurance company. Those who choose their own doctor without the permission of the employer may be required to pay for their own medical expenses.
However, there are some circumstances where changing your current doctor or choosing one’s own doctor is permissible. For example:
Emergency care. It’s not uncommon for an employee to require immediate emergency care. For example, a construction worker who falls off scaffolding will, in most cases, require an ambulance trip to the nearest emergency room. Workers’ compensation will generally make allowances for this even though the employer did not authorize the attending physician or the medical facility.
Initial evaluation. Employees have a right to choose their own physician for their initial injury evaluation. However, those who do should be certain to tell their doctor that they were injured at work and plan to file a claim. Although this initial visit may not be covered by workers’ compensation, the doctor will most likely need to fill out the necessary forms to prove that an injury occurred at work and that it’s severe enough to warrant a claim.