Court Opinion

ID: 4246340
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2018-02-20 14:09:32.218392+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:29:43.848091
License: Public Domain

FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
                STATE OF FLORIDA
                 _____________________________

                         No. 1D17-141
                 _____________________________

JOSE LUIS HERNANDEZ,

    Appellant,

    v.

HIALEAH SOLID WASTE
DEPARTMENT and SEDGWICK
CMS,

    Appellees.
                 _____________________________

On appeal from an order of the Judge of Compensation Claims.
Edward Almeyda, Judge.

Date of Accident: March 10, 2015.

                       February 20, 2018

PER CURIAM.

    Jose Luis Hernandez, a workers’ compensation claimant, was
prescribed certain spinal-injection treatments. His employer
authorized the treatment, but insisted that another physician—
not Hernandez’s treating physician—perform them. The Judge of
Compensation Claims sided with the employer, and Hernandez
appeals.
     Section 440.13(2)(d) allows the employer “to transfer the care
of an injured employee from the attending health care provider if
an independent medical examination determines that the
employee is not making appropriate progress in recuperation.”
Here, the employer did not satisfy the statute’s requirements.
Instead, the employer refused to allow Hernandez’s authorized
physician to perform authorized treatments, a refusal
“amount[ing] to a de facto deauthorization of the doctor.” Williams
v. Triple J Enters., 650 So. 2d 1114, 1116 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995).

    REVERSED and REMANDED for further proceedings.

B.L. THOMAS, C.J., and OSTERHAUS and WINSOR, JJ., concur.

                 _____________________________

    Not final until disposition of any timely and
    authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
    9.331.
               _____________________________

Mark L. Zientz of Law Offices of Mark L. Zientz, P.A., Miami, for
Appellant.

Eduardo E. Neret of Neret, Finlay & Nguyen, LLP, Miami, for
Appellees.

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