Alabama’s Workers’ Compensation Act: Navigating Your Rights

Alabama’s Workers’ Compensation Act allows the employer to control the healthcare provided to an injured employee. This means the employer gets to choose your doctor and approve or disapprove the treatment that doctor recommends. In many cases, the doctor chosen by the employer is a doctor they send other injured employees to as well and one that they have a continuing financial relationship with. Most of the time, the employer will also have its own representative accompany the employee to their doctor’s appointment. That representative is usually a “case nurse.” That “case nurse” is the employer’s representative. They are there to monitor the diagnoses and treatment the doctor orders. Often, the “case nurse” will talk to your doctor about your case alone, without you being present. They may discuss the treatment the doctor thinks is necessary and ask questions about why the doctor thinks it is necessary and whether there are less expensive alternatives to the treatment. Again, their job is to reduce the costs to the employer, not to ensure that the employee receives the best treatment possible. The employee does have some rights under Alabama’s workers’ compensation law, though. A patient has a right for the conversations between them and their doctor to be private, and they have the right for their examinations to be private. An employee can, therefore, ask that the “case nurse” not accompany the employee into the exam room while they are being examined or treated by the doctor. 

If an injured employee is dissatisfied with the doctor’s diagnosis or the treatment recommended by the doctor, the employee has a right under Alabama law to request to be seen by a different doctor at the employer’s expense. An employee may request from the insurance company a panel of four doctors. The insurance company—or the employer if the employer is uninsured—must provide to the employee the names of four doctors, and the injured employee may choose any of the four doctors to see for a second opinion. 

If the insurance company or the employer refuses to provide treatment that is necessary, you may see a doctor at your own expense. If the treatment is deemed necessary by the Court, the Court may later order that the employer or their insurance company reimburse the employee for those medical expenses. In some cases, I can send an injured employee to a physician who will agree to be paid after the case is completed to avoid the employee having to pay out-of-pocket.

If you have been injured on the job, make sure you know your rights. Make sure that you receive the medical treatment and benefits the law affords you. Call me and let me help you make sure you get what the law allows. It is always my goal to make sure my clients get the best treatment they can and the most benefits Workers’ Compensation law allows.