Claimant Proved Authorized Physician Referral

A claimant’s testimony and medical record were sufficient to establish that her authorized treating physician for her original 1977 back injury referred her to another doctor in the same practice group for a later work injury to her knee that exacerbated her earlier injury; the Court of Appeals affirms the commission’s decision that the medical payments were authorized within the proper chain of referral.

Some medical records specifically stated that claimant’s complaints were the result of the 1977 work injury and that her other symptoms were exacerbated by the 1977 work injury. The medical records, taken in their entirety, establish that the 1977 injury was causally related to the treatments rendered by the later doctor. Under the two causes rule, a condition which has two causes, one related to a work injury and one not, is compensable and the treatment of that condition will be the employer’s responsibility. The treatments were reasonable, necessary and causally related to the 1977 work injury.

We find the later doctor was an authorized treating physician and that he performed reasonable and necessary treatment that was causally related to the compensable 1977 work injury.

Commission decision affirmed.

Continental Telecom Corp. v. Streets-Nash (Per Curiam) No. 0016-17-2, May 2, 2017; Workers’ Comp. Comm’n; Kari L. Funk for appellants; No brief for appellee. VLW 017-7-108(UP), 4 pp.