Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

You can change your doctor. Did you get hurt at the same job or different job? Because all your prior injuries may have an effect on your case and insurance company would use your prior injuries to prove there is no aggravation. Feel free to call us at 213.388.7070 for a free consultation.

Did your 'work' issue a denial of the new claim? Did you attempt to re=open a 22 yr old 1991 claim?

Presuming you filed a NEW 'continuous Trauma" or repetitive overuse claim in 2013, your employer should either accept or deny responsibility.

If it's accepted, you are stuck with doctors in the Medical Provider Network and most are jerks (this is how Arnold and your senators 'fixed' workers comp in 2006, and people have been getting screwed every since).

if the new claim is rejected, you get a Qualified Medical Evaluator and he IS entitled to every medical record that exists on you. HE REALLY NEEDS to see how back the injury was in 1991. Trouble is, doctors destroyed all your records in 1998, so nobody can order or subpoena them.

You can pick a new physician within the Medical Provider Network. If the claim is denied, you're stuck with the QME.

Sounds like the insurer failed to get your medical records to the QME prior to the exam. Hence, he's clueless. he can't tell if this is just more of the same you've been treating for 22 years, or something new.

Can you get to a doc who will actually examine you?? Maybe. Probably not on your own, since you have no clue which guys on the network are jerks and which ones will really examine you.

This is why you need a certified specialist attorney... you really need somebody who knows the doctors on the Network and can find the 'needle in a haystack' who will really help you.