Alaska Administrative Code › Title 8 - Labor and Workforce Development › Part 3 - Workers' Compensation › Chapter 45 - Compensation, Medical Benefits, and Proceedings Before the Alaska Workers' Compensation Board › 8 AAC 45.082 - Medical treatment

Current through May 31, 2024
(a) The employer's obligation to furnish
				medical treatment under
				AS
				23.30.095 extends only to medical and dental
				services furnished by providers, unless otherwise ordered by the board after a
				hearing or consented to by the employer. The board will not order the employer
				to pay expenses incurred by an employee without the approval required by this
				subsection.
(b) A physician may be
				changed as follows:
(1) an employee injured
				before July 1, 1988, may change treating physicians at any time without board
				approval by notifying the employer and the board of the change; notice must be
				given in writing no later than 14 days after the change of treating physician;
				if, after a hearing, the board finds that the employee's repeated changes were
				frivolous or unreasonable, the board may refuse to order payment by the
				employer;
(2) except as otherwise
				provided in this subsection, an employee injured on or after July 1, 1988,
				designates an attending physician by getting treatment, advice, an opinion, or
				any type of service from a physician for the injury; if an employee gets
				service from a physician at a clinic, all the physicians in the same clinic who
				provide service to the employee are considered the employee's attending
				physician; an employee does not designate a physician as an attending physician
				if the employee gets service
(A) at a hospital
				or an emergency care facility;
(B)
				from a physician
(i) whose name was given to
				the employee by the employer and the employee does not designate that physician
				as the attending physician;
(ii)
				whom the employer directed the employee to see and the employee does not
				designate that physician as the attending physician; or
(iii) whose appointment was set, scheduled,
				or arranged by the employer, and the employee does not designate that physician
				as the attending physician;
(3) for an employee injured on or after July
				1, 1988, an employer's choice of physician is made by having a physician or
				panel of physicians selected by the employer give an oral or written opinion
				and advice after examining the employee, the employee's medical records, or an
				oral or written summary of the employee's medical records; to constitute a
				panel, for purposes of this paragraph, the panel must complete its examination,
				but not necessarily the report, no later than five days after the first
				physician sees the employee; if more than five days pass between the time the
				first and last physicians see the employee, the physicians do not constitute a
				panel, but rather a change of physicians;
(4) regardless of an employee's date of
				injury, the following is not a change of an attending physician:
(A) the employee moves a distance of 50 miles
				or more from the attending physician and the employee does not get services
				from the attending physician after moving; the first physician providing
				services to the employee after the employee moves is a substitution of
				physicians and not a change of attending physicians;
(B) the attending physician dies, moves the
				physician's practice 50 miles or more from the employee, or refuses to provide
				services to the employee; the first physician providing services to the
				employee thereafter is a substitution of physicians and not a change of
				attending physicians;
(C) the
				employer suggests, directs, or schedules an appointment with a physician other
				than the attending physician, the other physician provides services to the
				employee, and the employee does not designate in writing that physician as the
				attending physician;
(D) the
				employee requests in writing that the employer consent to a change of attending
				physicians, the employer does not give written consent or denial to the
				employee within 14 days after receiving the request, and thereafter the
				employee gets services from another physician.