Mileage and Transportation Costs through Workers Compensation in Virginia
Payment of Mileage, Transportation, and Travel Costs through Workers Compensation in Virginia
If you were hurt on the job, you may be entitled to many types of workers’ compensation benefits in Virginia. The most common benefits include temporary total disability, which provides income when you miss time from work, and lifetime medical treatment for all reasonable and necessary care related to your workplace injuries.
Obtaining medical treatment and filling prescription medication to treat your symptoms often requires a lot of travel and driving. This can get expensive – especially if you have no other source of income or you are waiting for a workers’ compensation hearing to determine whether you’re entitled to wage loss benefits.
Fortunately you are entitled to reimbursement for mileage and travel expenses related to your medical treatment if you are an injured worker who proves that you sustained a compensable injury by accident arising out of and in the course of your employment. Your employer is responsible for mileage from your home to the doctor, pharmacy, or therapist.
Further, your employer must pay mileage reimbursement for expenses to and from activities associated with vocational rehabilitation. For example, you will get reimbursed for travel to meet the vocational counselor, as well as travel to job interviews and job fairs.
Trips that count
- Home to the doctor.
- Home to the pharmacy, to fill a prescription.
- Home to the therapist.
- Travel to and from vocational rehabilitation: the counselor, job interviews and job fairs.
- Tolls and parking on any of those trips.
Keeping Track of Mileage Reimbursement for Workers’ Compensation
The mileage reimbursement rate effective January 1, 2026 is $0.725 per mile. The Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission ties its rate to the IRS Standard Mileage rate, which updates automatically on January 1 each year. This rate is meant to take into account the costs associated with owning a car, including insurance premiums, maintenance, and repair.
To get reimbursed by your employer or its workers’ compensation insurance carrier, you must keep detailed track of your expenses. When you hire us as your workers’ compensation attorney, we’ll provide you with a detailed log that you can use to keep track of mileage and travel expenses. For each trip, you should write down the address and exact mileage using either the odometer or an online tool. You should include the cost of any tolls or parking expenses associated with travel for the medical treatment or vocational rehabilitation in your log.
When you fill out an entire page, send it to the employer or insurance carrier in your case. We recommend attaching medical reports or receipts that show you traveled to the places listed in your mileage reimbursement log.
We recommend submitting the log every two weeks. This reduces the length of time you are out of pocket for transportation to doctor appointments and other medical visits.
What the driving is worth.
Mileage to the doctor, the pharmacy, the therapist. Nobody sends you a check for it unless you send the log in first.
Home to the appointment and back. Read it off the odometer, or measure it on a map. Tenths of a mile count.
Every trip counts: the doctor, the pharmacy, the therapist, and anything vocational rehabilitation sends you to, including the counselor, job interviews and job fairs.
The Commission ties this to the IRS standard rate, which re-sets every January 1. $0.725 is the rate effective January 1, 2026.
12 visits, 40 miles round trip. That is 480 miles at $0.725 a mile.
Virginia ties the mileage rate to the IRS standard rate, so it moves every January 1. $0.725 a mile is the rate effective January 1, 2026; if you are reading this after the next change, put the new rate in above. Mileage runs from your home to the doctor, the pharmacy and the therapist, and to anything vocational rehabilitation sends you to, including the counselor, job interviews and job fairs. Tolls and parking belong in the log too. For every trip, write down the address and the exact mileage, off the odometer or an online tool, and attach the medical reports or receipts that show you were there. I recommend sending the log in every two weeks, so you are not out of pocket for months. This is a floor, not a promise: it is only the trips you can document. And if you have no way to get to an appointment, I recommend telling the insurer at least two days in advance, in writing. The employer has to pay for the transportation, but you have to tell them you need it, and a missed appointment is the excuse the insurer uses to suspend your benefits.
Get a free case reviewThis is arithmetic on the numbers you typed, not a promise of what you will be paid.
It multiplies the round trip by the number of visits by the rate, and adds the tolls and parking. It cannot see your log. Only the trips you can document get reimbursed, so the number above is a floor, not a total.
$0.725 a mile is the rate this site publishes as effective January 1, 2026. The Commission ties the rate to the IRS standard mileage rate, which re-sets every January 1, so check the current rate and put it in the box above before you rely on this.
Using this calculator does not make me your lawyer, and nothing it prints is legal advice about your situation. For that, talk to me, or to any lawyer, about your actual case.
What if I Do Not Have Transportation to a Medical Appointment?
Missing a doctor’s appointment or scheduled meeting with the vocational rehabilitation counselor gives the insurance company an excuse to file an application to suspend your benefits. Do not give the insurance company a way to cut off your payments!
We realize that you may not have transportation while waiting to receive your workers’ comp benefits or that you are unable to drive because of your injuries. That’s ok. The employer and its insurance company must help you.
The employer is obligated to pay the cost of transportation for you to attend medical appointments or vocational training courses. But you must notify the employer and its insurance carrier that transportation is required.
We recommend notifying the insurer at least two days’ in advance if you do not have transportation to a doctor’s visit. And give this notice in writing! That way you build a record of trying to get to the doctor. This will help you defeat any attempt by the insurance company to suspend your benefits for failure to cooperate with medical treatment or vocational rehabilitation.
Get Help with Mileage and Transportation Costs Following a Workplace Accident
When you are out of work because of an on-the-job injury and facing uncertainty over whether you will be able to recover fully, finances are tight. But you are entitled to reimbursement for mileage and transportation.
These expenses add up, so don’t be surprised if the employer and insurance company make it difficult to receive reimbursement. That’s where we can help.
Have questions about workers’ comp? Looking for help obtaining reimbursement for gas and transportation? Contact work injury lawyer Corey Pollard today for a free consultation. We help injured employees throughout Virginia win their case and obtain workers’ compensation settlements.
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