West Virginia: High Court Says Claimant’s Continued OxyContin Prescriptions Not Compensable

In a memorandum decision, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed the denial of continued use of OxyContin to an injured worker who sustained a back injury in August 1992, yet who complained of continuing back pain 23 years later, at the time of an IME. The IME noted that at the time of his examination, the worker was receiving a cocktail of drugs: Xanax, Wellbutrin, Zanaflex, Neurontin, OxyContin, and DDAVP. The IME physician opined that the worker was not fit within the diagnosis of failed back surgery syndrome, and that he should be weaned off OxyContin. Subsequently, the IME physician indicated that the cause of the worker’s pain was uncertain but was consistent with chronic degenerative changes.

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 Grinnan v. West Va. Office of Ins. Comm’r, 2018 W. Va. LEXIS 205 (Mar. 21, 2018)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 94.03.

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