Virginia: Commission Appropriately Authorized Change of Physician Where Resulted in No Improvement

The Workers’ Compensation Commission properly authorized an injured employee to change her treating physician pursuant to Va. Code Ann. § 65.2–603 because, while recognizing that there was a difference of opinion among the doctors, the Commission determined that the employee’s evidence that she continued to suffer pain was credible and there was credible evidence to support the Commission’s findings that inadequate treatment was being rendered. The employee offered evidence that treatment was needed by a specialist in a particular field and was not being provided. There was also an unexplained lack of progress in the improvement of the employee’s condition. A new physician was in order.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Miller Oil Co. v. Freeman, 2016 Va. App. LEXIS 215 (Aug. 2, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 94.02.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law