Milbrat v. The Marketplace, Inc., No. WC12-5448 (W.C.C.A. Oct. 22, 2012). Affirmed in part and vacated in part.
In this case the employee suffered an admitted work-related injury. Over two years later, she was on her way from her treating doctor’s office to the pharmacy to fill her work injury-related prescriptions when she was injured in a car accident. The compensation judge found that the injury from the car accident was a compensable consequence of her original work injury, and the employer and insurer appealed.
The W.C.C.A. reviewed the case law and noted that injuries have been found to be compensable when they occurred while the employee was on her way from her home to reasonable and necessary medical treatment of the work injury, or vice versa. However, compensation has been denied for injuries that occurred while traveling to or from an IME or retraining. The employer and insurer argued that because the employee was not on her way home from the doctor’s office but was instead on her way to get medications, the injury was not compensable. The W.C.C.A. held that injuries sustained while traveling to or from a pharmacy are compensable if the trip is being made to obtain medications that are reasonable and necessary to treat the work injury.