Iowa Workers' Compensation

A series of commissioners has held that when an authorized treating physician recommends treatment that treatment is deemed to be authorized under 85.27(4) of the Iowa Code.  In Lynch Livestock v. Bursell, No. 14-1133 (Iowa App. May 20, 2015), the Iowa Court of Appeals turns this longstanding agency rule on its head and concludes that in the context of an alternate medical care proceeding, the claimant must demonstrate that the care offered by the employer is unreasonable, notwithstanding that the care sought is recommended by the authorized treating physician.  The decision of the court of appeals could well sound the death knell of a large portion of alternate medical care proceedings by destroying the authorized physician rule. In Mr. Bursell's case, Dr. Cook, an authorized treating physician, diagnosed claimant with CRPS and referred him to Dr. Kelly, a vascular surgeon.  Dr. Kelly recommended a lumbar sympathectomy.  Defendants subsequently sent claimant to ot...

In Tomlinson Cannon v. Whited , No. 1-878 (Iowa App. Jan. 19, 2012), the court affirmed a decision of the agency which had concluded that claimant was entitled to alternate medical care.  Claimant had originally seen Dr. Neiman for his injuries, and later filed an alternate medical care proceeding to allow him to continue care with Dr. Neiman.  During the course of the case, Dr. Neiman recommended that claimant see a podiatrist for a foot injury he had developed.  Defendants had earlier indicated that claimant should see another physician, but claimant declined to see that physician.  On the alternate medical care proceeding, claimant argued, and the agency held, that since Dr. Neiman was the authorized treating physician, the employer was not entitled to interfere with his recommendations for care.  The finding of the agency was consistent with the agency's general rule that the recommendations of the authorized treating physician cannot be contravened by the e...