Mileage Money & Travel Reimbursement for Injured Workers

With the price of gasoline, parking and tolls rising and injured workers and their families traveling to doctors, physical therapy and testing appointments, there is a significant cost to just getting to and from health care facilities.   However, there are solutions to these expenses according to the workplace injury team at the Landau Law Shop. “I am going broke going to the doctors, physical therapy and the testing center !”  “I spent over a thousand dollars in tolls, parking and gas; doesn’t that count for anything ?”  “My wife’s car is falling apart and we cannot afford to fix it up to take me to my appointments safely !”

Doug Landau of the Herndon law firm ABRAMS LANDAU has heard all of these statements.  However, there are solutions.  Landau points out that there is a mileage reimbursement rate for Virginia Workers Compensation claimants, set forth below, that reimburses injured workers and their families for travel associated with their medical care.

YEAR            Reimbursement rate per mile
2010                   $.505
2009                  $.505
2005                  $.27 eff 10/1 $.325

Not every injured worker is transported by cab, ambulance or limousine paid for by the workers comp insurer.  Most injured workers get around by car or public transportation.  The insurance company can be ordered to pay for the reasonable costs of such medial care related travel.  Parking, tolls, usually require receipts.  As for mileage, workers used to measure once, and then write the total round trip miles on the bill and multiply by the number of appointments.  Now MapQuest of Google Maps is used by adjusters to check the distances submitted for accuracy.  The checks for travel reimbursement are not taxable, and the Landau law Shop has gotten mileage checks as large as $14,000 !  That client went out and bought herself a new car !  her prior lawyer did not know how to apply for such compensation benefits.

Doug Landau of the Herndon law firm ABRAMS LANDAU points out that if an injured worker’s husband drove 1,000 miles to take her back and forth to her authorized physical therapy appointments and paid $200 for parking and $75 for tolls, then an experienced comp lawyer would know to apply to the Virginia Workers Compensation Commission for $785.  A top quality workers compensation lawyer in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia will help you calculate your travel reimbursement benefits allowed by law and protect your rights under the Act.  The timely application for mileage payments is something a workers comp attorney who regularly goes to court to try workplace injury cases will know how to accomplish for you.  Landau has seen many cases where so-called “personal injury specialists” or “workers comp advertising lawyers” did not know how to get these benefits for injured workers, costing these workplace accident victims tens of thousands of dollars.  We all know that the price of gas is increasing and maintaining a car in the DC metro area is not cheap.  If your workers comp lawyer does not keep up, you will lose in the long run.