Eligible employees who are injured on the job are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits, which pay for their medical care and offset a portion of their lost wages while they are unable to work. Their employers are responsible for paying these benefits, either by self-insuring or by contracting with a third-party workers’ compensation insurance provider. As such, employers have a financial interest in getting injured employees back to work as soon as possible, so they no longer have to pay the cost of benefits—sometimes before the worker is actually able to do so safely. One way an employer might attempt to do this is through an “independent medical examination,” or IME.
Understanding Independent Medical Examinations
An employer that provides workers’ compensation benefits to an injured employee may ask that employee to undergo an independent medical examination (IME). An IME is a medical exam conducted by a physician other than the doctor treating the employee to assess their condition. When an employer or its workers’ compensation insurance carrier requests an IME, they will cover the cost of the exam, paying the examining physician for their time and paying for any medical tests or scans conducted during the IME. An IME can provide updated information regarding an employee’s current medical condition and the progress of their work-related injury or illness improvement.
How IME Results Can Affect Workers’ Comp Benefits
The results of an IME can affect an employee’s workers’ comp benefits by giving an employer an evidentiary basis to argue that the employee’s condition has improved enough for them to return to work in some capacity. Alternatively, an IME may provide evidence for an employer to argue that the employee’s injury or illness did not arise in the course and scope of their work. Thus, employers frequently request IMEs in order to reduce or terminate a worker’s wage-loss benefits or to deny workers’ compensation benefits altogether, including medical treatment.
Common Tactics Employers Use After an IME
Employers have many different strategies for turning an IME against an injured worker, including by:
- Using the IME report to dispute the employee’s treating physician’s opinions
- Suspending the employee’s benefits or petitioning to modify or terminate benefits
- Requiring the employee to return to a modified duty position, which makes the employee eligible for termination and loss of workers’ comp benefits if they refuse the position
- Pressuring the employee to settle the case or face litigation over a petition to modify/terminate benefits
What Workers Can Do to Protect Themselves
Workers can protect themselves from an employer’s efforts to reduce or terminate their workers’ compensation benefits after an IME by:
- Attending the IME as scheduled and documenting everything that occurs during the exam
- Staying current with their treatment with their treating physician to ensure consistent, updated medical records
- Consulting a workers’ compensation attorney, especially if the employer moves to change or end benefits
Workers should be aware that because the employer or insurer hires the physician conducting the IME, the results of the exam will likely favor the employer’s interests. Although an employee’s treating physician’s opinion usually carries significant weight in a workers’ comp case, the results of an IME may give a workers’ compensation judge a reason to discount the treating physician’s account.
Contact a Workers’ Compensation Attorney Today
Has your employer asked you to undergo an independent medical examination or petitioned to terminate your workers’ compensation benefits based on the results of your IME? If so, contact McCormick & Vilushis LLC for a free, no-obligation consultation with a knowledgeable workers’ comp lawyer. We can help you fight to preserve the benefits you’re entitled to under the law.