In Idaho worker’s compensation cases the doctors control the most important evidence ie causation, restrictions and impairment. As the injured person you have to come forward with medical evidence in the form of opinions from your doctor to support your Idaho worker’s compensation claim. Often your employer will send you to a physician there insurance company always uses. This could be a physician’s assistant or a doctor. Often these physicians will try to get you back to work as soon as possible. Let us say you injured you back. You go to PA your employer sent you to and he thinks you are fine gives you some pain meds and sends you back to work. You want a second opinion. You go see a spine specialist. They determine you need to be off work for a while to heal and get better. Unfortunately you didn’t get a referral to the spine specialist from that PA you first saw, and your employer won’t accept the spine specialist’s opinion. Even though the spine specialist has done countless number of spinal surgeries and went to school for four years and had an additional six years of training. Doesn’t make sense right? It doesn’t to me either.
Always try and get a written referral from a doctor the Idaho worker’s compensation insurance company has paid as a part Idaho worker’s compensation claim. The new doctor will then be in the referral chain and Idaho worker’s compensation insurance company will then be required to pay the new doctor so long as you can prove through medical testimony that the care they provide is reasonable.
In the end the treating physician’s opinion will have more weight and so will the spine specialist, but until that time comes, you are caught up in the doctor game. An expert Idaho worker’s compensation attorney can help you get the treatment you need. Idaho worker’s compensation lawyers work with medical professionals all the time and know who to refer you to get the proper treatment.