Medical imaging helps your doctor diagnose the nature and extent of your occupational injury, prescribe a treatment plan, and monitor the success of physical therapy or surgery.
Of the diagnostic imaging available, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is the most crucial test in many work accident cases. Indeed, one treatise says that MRI is the gold standard for diagnosing some of the most common work injuries.
We agree that MRI is critical to evaluating claims involving orthopedic injuries to the spine, joints, bones, ligaments, and tendons (but less valuable in many work-related head injury and concussion cases).
Your MRI results often determine and answer whether –
This information affects workers compensation settlement value.
Despite this importance, workers comp insurers frequently deny MRI authorization and approval. Indeed, our personal injury law firm receives several phone calls from injured workers each month because of claims adjusters who have denied MRI authorizations with insurance carriers and claim administrators (Sedgwick, ESIS, etc.).
This article explains what you must prove to get an MRI approved by workers compensation. With the proper evidence, you can get Magnetic Resonance Imaging covered by the insurance company so you can decide on the next steps for your work-related injury claim (for example, keeping the lifetime medical award versus settlement).
Read on for more information.
Then call us at (804) 251-1620 or (757) 810-5614 if you have any questions about workers compensation. See why thousands of auto accident victims and injured employees have asked us for help.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a noninvasive diagnostic test that provides images of your internal organs and structures.
Unlike X-rays or CT scans, MRI produces images without using radiation. Instead, Magnetic Resonance Imaging uses magnetic fields and radio waves to form pictures of your body’s internal structures.
Your doctor will review these images and the radiologist’s report to diagnose your occupational injury or illness and develop a treatment plan. A radiologist is a doctor who specializes in interpreting medical imaging results.
MRI tests come in different forms.
Common examples of Magnetic Resonance Imaging tests include the following:
Your treating physicians will order all diagnostic procedures, including Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
In workers compensation, the orthopedic doctor or neurosurgeon usually orders the MRI when conservative treatment (PT, chiropractic care, acupuncture) has failed to heal you or reduce your symptoms to a manageable level.
We often see doctors order workers compensation MRIs in these situations:
Your doctors may prescribe MRI and CT scans when treating your work injury.
The primary advantages of Magnetic Resonance Imaging over CT scan are that:
However, Magnetic Resonance Imaging does have some drawbacks. For example:
We recommend discussing any concerns with the prescribed test with your doctor.
We have reviewed MRI charges from healthcare providers across Virginia and Maryland when evaluating auto accident and workers compensation claims for settlement or trial.
MRI costs range from $500 to $4,000 or more, with an average charge of $1,000 to $2,000 in workers comp cases.
The factors affecting how much your imaging costs include:
Generally, workers compensation laws require employers and insurers to pay for medical attention that is reasonable, necessary, and related to the work accident. For example, in Virginia, Code Section 65.2-603 details what insurers must offer and pay for.
However, the test for approval for a workers compensation MRI and related diagnostic procedures is more favorable to injured employees in our Commonwealth. The burden of proof is lower.
The Workers Compensation Commission has consistently interpreted necessary medical attention to include reasonable and necessary diagnostic procedures, such as medical imaging tests, even though the injured employee has not established the ultimate causation of the condition.
Indeed, the insurer must pay for a workers compensation MRI if you prove a possible causal relationship between the occupational injury and the Magnetic Resonance Imaging, even if the test reveals your condition is unrelated to the industrial accident.
It can be frustrating to find out that you must reschedule medical imaging because the workers compensation insurer still needs to authorize the MRI.
Equally frustrating is that the insurer may ignore your requests for MRI approval and not tell you the reason for the denial.
That said, we have identified several reasons that insurers deny or delay the authorization of diagnostic imaging in workers compensation cases:
It is possible to overcome these problems and get approval for a workers comp MRI.
Yes, the insurer may deny the order for Magnetic Resonance Imaging even when you have an award for lifetime medical benefits.
Read the fine print on the Award Order. You will see that the insurer is responsible for lifetime care that is reasonable, necessary, and causally related to the occupational injury or illness.
These modifiers—reasonable, necessary, and causally related—allow the insurer to dispute any prescribed medical treatment, even if the Commission awards medical benefits. Therefore, the claim adjuster may deny the MRI and avoid a bad faith claim even though the insurer has paid for all treatments.
We find this situation unfair and unsatisfactory.
In addition, it often makes little business sense for the insurance companies to halt treatment. The insurer will likely spend any money they think they are saving by delaying the MRI on additional wage loss payments and health care. Delayed treatment can lead to increased disability or surgery when timely conservative care could have healed you.
A delayed diagnosis because of a denied MRI can prolong your recovery time and increase how long you are disabled from an occupational injury or illness.
Therefore, you want to be proactive in getting approval for the MRI.
We recommend taking some or all of these steps to reverse a workers comp denied MRI into an approved medical imaging testing:
These first two steps determine if the insurer has denied the MRI or has not acted yet. Sometimes (more often than not), the insurance adjuster is overworked with too many claim files and putting out fires as they spring up. Therefore, approving medical imaging takes a backseat to other claims.
If these steps do not lead to the insurer responding, or if you find out the claim adjuster will not approve the MRI, then we recommend:
Suppose the insurer continues to deny the MRI after litigation. In that case, the Commission will hear evidence on your claim and decide whether the workers comp insurance company must approve this diagnostic procedure.
If the insurance carrier plans to approve the MRI, you should hear back within seven to 21 days of your follow-up requests.
However, you may have to litigate the issue if the insurer denies authorization or fails to respond.
If so, it could take 30 to 90 days to get a decision from the Commission, and it will only come after the parties submit written briefs or present their case at trial.
Maybe.
Most medical imaging facilities will only complete the MRI with insurance approval because the facility wants to ensure it gets paid.
However, if you run into this situation, you may be able to get the MRI without approval if:
Then you can use the imaging results to continue your treatment and analyze your claim’s value. For example, if the MRI suggests you need a spinal fusion, you can seek significantly more monetary damages and a higher settlement amount than if the diagnostic procedure shows nothing.
All you want is to schedule the MRI to figure out how bad your work injury is and what treatment you need to heal and recover so you can return to work.
But the workers compensation insurer has denied the MRI your physician ordered.
And now everything is at a standstill.
Fortunately, you could get workers comp approval for Magnetic Resonance Imaging if you suffered a compensable injury. When the medical evidence shows that the MRI will help determine whether the cause of your symptoms relates to the occupational injury, the employer and its insurer must pay for the medical imaging.
Contact us to discuss how we can help you get insurance approval for a denied workers compensation MRI.
See why thousands of others in your position have asked us to represent them. And how we can get results for you.