Nebraska: Employee Need Not Provide Long-Term Out-of-State Opioid Meds to Worker Who Relocates

Where an injured Nebraska employee relocated to Florida and there sought long-term opioid medications, combined with benzodiazepines, and muscle relaxants that had been prescribed by a Florida physician, the employer was not required to pay for the treatment since they had not been prescribed by a “Form 50” physician under the state’s physician selection rules, held the Supreme Court of Nebraska. The Court acknowledged that the employee’s original Nebraska physician had died, but noted that the employee subsequently had been tried by a colleague of the deceased physician. Since that doctor had not recommended either the Florida physician or the opioid cocktail, the employer was under no obligation to shoulder the cost.

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

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Rogers v. Jack’s Supper Club, 2019 Neb. LEXIS 170 (Dec. 6, 2019)

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

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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