Louisiana: Employer Need Not Pay for Functional Capacity Evaluation Claimant Needed to Contest Employer’s Earlier FCE

The Supreme Court of Louisiana affirmed the OWC’s denial of the claimant’s motion to compel the employer to pay for a functional capacity evaluation to be performed by a physical therapist of the claimant’s choice where the purpose of the FCE was to contest the results of a prior FCE that was performed by an employer-referred physical therapist. While the employee was permitted, under La. Rev. Stat. § 23:1121(A) and (B), to select a physician for treatment purposes, she was not entitled to an FCE with her choice of provider at the employer’s cost. The employee contended that without an employer-paid FCE by a physical therapist of her choice, she would not have a medical opinion to contest the disability opinion of the medical provider selected by the employer/insurer. The court disagreed, noting that expenses sought to be reimbursed that are incurred by the employee solely as preparation for trial of the matter rather than for curative purposes are properly disallowed.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Clavier v. Coburn Supply Co., 2017 La. LEXIS 1381 (June 29, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 94.02.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law