Employee CD, a resident of Highspire, Dauphin County, suffered a work injury on October 14, 2006, while employed by VFW Post 1718. The workers’ compensation insurance company denied payment of massage therapy for the injured worker.
Claimant filed a Petition for Review of Utilization Review Determination for prospective office visits, any and all treatment including but not limited to massage, provided by Scott Colman, D.C., which went before Workers’ Compensation Judge Charles F. Clark in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The Judge rejected the medical opinions of Dr. Jane McBride, D.C. as incredible and unpersuasive because Dr. McBride was unsure of the mechanism of the Claimant’s work injury, only reviewed medical records from 2006 and failed to take the Claimant’s employee statement into consideration or consider the effects of the Claimant’s work-related surgeries. The Judge found Dr Colman’s office visits and massage therapy from July 28, 2009 and into the future reasonable and necessary.
In 2011, the Claimant’s Petition for Review of Utilization Review Determination was granted. Chartis Claims, Inc. and Constitution State services Co. were ordered to pay Dr. Colman’s reasonable and necessary treatment, including massage therapy, from July 28, 2009 and forward and costs of litigation.
