- Sternberg Law Office
Injured workers in Florida do not choose their doctor. The employer or its carrier selects the authorized treating physician, and treatment obtained elsewhere is generally not paid for.
Workers who feel the doctor is dismissive, is releasing them too quickly, or is treating the carrier as the client have one meaningful remedy. Florida allows a one-time change of physician, and how the request is made determines whether it works.
The Right Exists Once Per Accident
Florida entitles an injured worker to one change of physician during the course of treatment for a compensable accident.
The replacement must be within the same specialty as the physician being replaced. You are not selecting a specific doctor by name — you are asking the carrier to authorize a different one.
Because it can be used only once, timing matters. Using it early over a personality clash leaves you without recourse later when a more consequential disagreement arises, such as a premature determination of maximum medical improvement.
The Request Must Be in Writing
This is where these requests fail.
The request must be made in writing to the carrier. A verbal request to an adjuster, a comment to the doctor’s office, or a message to a supervisor does not satisfy the requirement.
Send it in a way that documents delivery and keep a copy showing the date. Sternberg Law Office prepares these requests so the deadline runs correctly. That date is what makes the rest of the rule work.
The Carrier’s Deadline
Once a proper written request is received, the carrier must authorize an alternative physician within a defined period.
If the carrier fails to respond within that period, the right to select the physician passes to the injured worker. That is a significant consequence, and it converts a request into an opportunity.
Carriers miss this deadline regularly, particularly where the request went to the wrong person or arrived during a claim handler transition. A worker who documented the request and the date is positioned to take advantage of it. One who asked verbally has nothing to point to.
Why Workers Want a Change
- Appointments that last minutes and address nothing
- A release to full duty that does not match how the worker actually functions
- Refusal to order diagnostic imaging the worker believes is needed
- A determination of maximum medical improvement that arrives too early
- Referrals to specialists that are requested and never made
- A general sense that the physician is reporting to the carrier rather than treating the patient
Not all of these are grounds for anything other than a one-time change, but the change is a real remedy and is worth using deliberately rather than reflexively.
Deauthorisation
Carriers sometimes deauthorize a treating physician, which differs from a worker requesting a change and does not consume the one-time right.
This occurs when a carrier is dissatisfied with a physician’s opinions, particularly when the doctor supports continued treatment or restrictions that the carrier would prefer to end.
A worker whose treating physician is suddenly deauthorized should treat that as significant rather than routine, because it usually signals that the carrier is repositioning the medical evidence.
Independent Medical Examinations Are Different
An independent medical examination is not a change of physician and does not use up the one-time right.
Florida permits each party one such examination per accident in most circumstances. The worker’s examination is obtained by the worker’s side and provides a competing medical opinion, though the physician does not become the treating doctor.
The carrier also conducts its own examination, typically to support the termination of benefits or to establish maximum medical improvement. Those appointments are short, the physician is selected by the carrier, and the report is the basis for whatever the carrier does next.
Preparing for a carrier-arranged examination matters. Be accurate about your condition without exaggerating or minimizing. Examiners specifically look for inconsistent effort, and a report noting symptom magnification can severely damage a claim, even when the underlying injury is real.
Timing the Request Deliberately
Because the change can be used only once per accident, when to use it is a genuine strategic decision.
Using it early over a poor bedside manner leaves nothing available later when a physician assigns a premature maximum medical improvement date or a low impairment rating, which are the determinations that actually move money.
On the other hand, waiting too long means enduring months of treatment from a physician who is not advancing the case, and the treatment record generated during that period becomes part of the claim.
The useful question is whether the problem lies in the relationship or in the substance. Substance is worth the change. Personality generally is not.
Emergency and Specialist Care
Emergency treatment does not require prior authorization. Where an injury requires immediate care, go and address authorization afterward
Specialist referrals are a frequent source of dispute. When the treating physician recommends a specialist and the carrier does not authorize the referral, that refusal can be challenged through a petition for benefits.
Delay in authorizing recommended care is one of the most common issues in Florida practice, and it is remediable rather than something to be endured.
Expert Medical Advisors
Where two medical opinions genuinely conflict on a material issue, the judge of compensation claims can appoint an expert medical advisor.
That opinion is given substantial weight and is presumed correct unless clear and convincing evidence establishes otherwise. It is therefore a consequential step rather than a routine one.
Understanding when to press for it and when a competing opinion is better used in negotiation is a strategic judgment worth seeking advice on.
What the Authorized Physician Controls
Understanding how much turns on this one relationship explains why the change of physician matters.
The authorized treating doctor decides whether you can work and under what restrictions, what treatment is medically necessary, whether a specialist referral is warranted, when you reach maximum medical improvement, and what permanent impairment rating you receive.
Each of those determinations directly affects benefits. A release to full duty ends wage benefits. A low impairment rating reduces what follows. A refusal to refer means treatment you may need does not happen.
That concentration of authority in a physician selected by the paying party is the structural feature of the Florida system that injured workers find hardest to accept, and it is why the remedies that do exist should be used deliberately.
Treating Outside the Authorized Network
Workers frustrated with authorized care sometimes see their own doctor, and it generally creates problems.
Treatment obtained outside the authorized network is usually not covered by the carrier, and opinions from an unauthorized physician carry limited weight in the proceedings. A worker can end up with medical bills and an opinion that does not help the claim.
There are exceptions, including emergency care and situations in which the carrier failed to provide authorized care within a reasonable period after a request. Those exceptions require documentation of the request and the failure to respond.
The reliable approach is to use the mechanisms the statute provides rather than working around them.
Mileage Reimbursement
Injured workers are entitled to reimbursement for travel to authorized medical appointments and pharmacies.
This is claimed by submitting the required form with dates, destinations, and distances, and it is constantly underclaimed. Over a course of treatment involving frequent therapy appointments, the amount is not trivial.
Keep a written record of every appointment as well — the date, how long it lasted, what was examined,d and what was said about work status. Where a report later describes an examination more thorough than what occurred, your own contemporaneous note is the only thing that answers it.
If you need a different doctor for your Florida claim, call Sternberg Law Office before making the request. Getting the written request right is what makes the rule work for you.
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