Builders and Contractors Exchange
Weekly Bulletin: 17 Oct 2005
A Valid Panel Of Physicians: Avoiding A Workers' Compensation Pitfall
By: Tom Berkley
As most employers understand, the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act provides employers a means to control an injured employee's medical treatment by limiting an employee's choice of approved physicians. This control materializes in the form of a three physician panel from which an employee must choose his treating physician. This panel provides employers a great benefit in the control of medical treatment, but many employers stand to lose this benefit by making some common mistakes. In those cases where the employer does not have a valid panel, an employee may choose his treating physician at any time during the life of his compensation claim. The employee may exercise this right despite years of treatment with an employer approved physician. An employee, who exercises this right, can do great damage or even prevent an employer from returning the employee to work, settling a claim, or defeating a claim.
Common mistakes that result in an employee's control of his medical treatment generally include a failure to construct the panel and a failure to produce the panel. For instance, employers should not merely post a panel of physicians in a break room. An employer should take more active measures to make an employee aware of his choices of physicians. Also, an employer should properly identify three individual, active, and willing physicians. An employer should not list a medical facility as a treating physician. An employer should not list more than one doctor from a single medical facility. And, an employer should not list retired physicians or physicians that do not wish to treat worker's compensation claims. If all three physicians on the panel do not satisfy these criteria, an employer has likely failed to construct a valid panel.
Avoiding these common mistakes requires not only an initial effort in identifying the three physicians, but also a yearly effort in confirming the continued adequacy of the panel. After an employer identifies three potential physicians, it should confirm with these physicians that they will treat worker's compensation claims, that they have a valid license, that they do not intend to retire in the near future, and that they will notify the employer in advance of any intended retirement before it places them on the panel. An employer should then request this information from its physicians on a yearly basis. After constructing the panel, an employer should then produce the panel to its employees. Merely posting the panel does not suffice, and an employer should provide a written panel to each employee on a yearly basis and discuss the panel choices at safety meetings. Effort in the construction and production of a valid panel can avoid much hardship in workers' compensation claims.
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This article is meant to bring awareness to this topic and is not intended to be used as legal advice.