West Virginia: Claimant Must Be Reimbursed for Meal Associated with Required Out-of-Town Medical Exam

Where a West Virginia claimant was ordered by his claims administrator to attend a medical examination that was to take place some 100 miles from his home and the claimant spent six hours traveling to, attending, and returning from a medical examination, the employer was required to reimburse the claimant for reasonable travel expenses, including meals, incurred in connection with the medical examination. The appellate court was unconvinced by the administrator’s argument that since the claimant did not spend the night away from home, he should not be reimbursed for his meal. The court concluded that the plain language of W. Va. Code § 23-4-8(c)-(e) required reimbursement for the meal. 

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 Silveti v. Ohio Valley Nursing Home, Inc., 2018 W. Va. LEXIS 285 (Apr. 11, 2018)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 94.03.

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