Workers' Compensation-Medical Treatment
There also is a good bit of controversy regarding the provision of medical treatment to injured workers. Typically, the medical treatment is controlled by the employer or the employer’s insurance carrier. This means that the employee receives treatment from doctors who have been chosen by the insurance carrier or the employer. These doctors obviously know who is paying their bill and they know that the insurance carrier and the employer expect this employee to return to work at some point in time so that their financial exposure in paying wage benefits is limited. Although these doctors generally provide quality medical care for the injured employee, they have a somewhat mixed loyalty. They know that the employer and the insurance company want this employee to return to work, but they also know that it is not necessarily always in the employee’s interest to return to work too quickly or even to return to that form of work at all.
