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If I sustain an injury while working, who decides what doctor I have to go to?

 

A: Under the Iowa Workers' Compensation laws for an injury that is accepted by your employer as work related, the employer and Workers' Compensation insurance carrier get to choose your doctor. This right of their ability to choose their doctor is not without limitation. The medical care that the employer chooses for you must be reasonable, must be offered promptly, and be reasonably suited to treat the injury without undue inconvenience to the employee. In situations where the employers or insurance carriers pick physicians who are either not qualified or who are located great distances from the employee's home, the employee may be able to force the employer and insurance carrier to provide them care with a different physician.

Another situation in which employees can make a choice of care is when under the law an employee has the right to a second opinion. An employee is entitled to the second opinion at the insurance carrier's expense when 1) the w.c. claim is accepted; 2) the insurance carrier's doctor has issued an impairment rating; and 3) the claimant believes the impairment rating is too low.

For questions such as these, it is important that you contact an experienced Workers' Compensation attorney.




Workers' compensation attorney and personal injury lawyer Nicholas Pothitakis has law offices in Burlington and Keokuk, Iowa, and serves clients throughout the southeast region of the state, including the following cities and counties:

Cities: Burlington, Keokuk, Fort Madison, Muscatine, Mt. Pleasant, Mediapolis, Wapello, Ottumwa, Fairfield, and Davenport.

Counties: Des Moines, Lee, Louisa, Henry, Van Buren, Jefferson, Washington, and Muscatine.