stewshe@comcast.net
Senior Member
Posts: 1381
Joined: Jun 2002
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Wednesday December 10, 2008 5:35 AM
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When I first considered this, my gut reaction was "no" and that while travel expenses might be reimbursable, phone calls, even long distance, were not.
There have always been some MPNs which seem to be more carefully composed than others, but I have recently had very bad experiences with a couple. I posted earlier about 14 psychiatrists in the Fresno area on one MPN. I spent 2 hours (total estimated over 2 - 3 days) calling and returning calls only to learn NONE of the docs listed would treat.
Some had been dead for 2 or more years.
Some had NEVER treated any W/C EE in the past 20+ years.
One did treat at his main office in L.A. or the Bay Area, but in traveling to Fresno for the past 10 - 15 years had only done QME work here.
Then I had a claim where the EE lived way out in the "boonies" and would have to travel a considerable distance to find a neurosurgeon.
After a month's searching he turned in his telephone bill with 56 long distance charges to EVERY neurosugeon in Northern California on the CA's MPN list. Only one would agree to see a w/c patient!
He requested that one, and of course the CA would have to authorize it. After a phone call from the CA, the doc refused to even set an initial exam! (12 year old case with several boxes of stuff!)
Bottom line? I think the long distance phone charges are reimbursable. The CA denied them and the DA of course agreed.
I think they are reimbursable. What should the EE have done? Written letters? At one letter/week, it would have taken over a year to find out none would treat!
Drive to each location? The CA would have had a kitten, or two, over the mileage and food/lodging expenses in driving....so that leaves the phone bills as a "reasonable" expense.
Does anyone disagree?
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Stew (James T. Stewart) e-mail: stewshe@comcast.net
Author: Work Comp Index & Tables & Schedules in "The Labor Code Book," by LexisNexis/Matthew Bender.
7th ed. Work Comp Index (912 pgs), $119.00 ea; next ed. summer, 2010 {Discounts for orders of 12 or more}
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James T. Stewart; 1937 Santa Ana; Clovis, CA 93611
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