Delay and denial of medical treatment by insurance companies is all too common in Georgia’s workers’ compensation system. Sometimes, the insurance company will not approve you to go to the doctor. At other times, they want to deny specific treatment or testing like an MRI or physical therapy.
However, even when medical treatment is being approved, you may find that you have a difficult time getting the prescription medication your doctor has prescribed for your injury.
Delays in Medication Approval
When you take a prescription for workers’ compensation medication to a pharmacy, you need it filled quickly so you can get relief. Unfortunately, many things can delay your receipt of the medication.
Almost all pharmacies require preapproval before they will give you the medication. This means that you are either going to have to pay for the medication or an authorized representative is going to have to tell the pharmacy that the insurance company will pay. Once this happens, you can get your medication.
The problem is that many insurance companies use different companies to deal with approval of workers’ compensation medications. Some insurance companies give you a prescription card to take to the pharmacy. There are often problems with these services that result in delay of medication approval. When that happens, you do not get your medication timely.
Also, these companies sometimes have incorrect information that causes denial of medication that should be approved. For example, the company may have down that you can only get medication from a certain doctor. If you come in with a prescription from another doctor, your medication will likely be denied.
Solutions to Medications Delays
One solution to avoid the delay in getting your workers’ compensation medication is just to pay for it yourself and seek reimbursement. Unfortunately, that is not a very good solution for most people because:
- Many medications are very expensive
- You have to wait for reimbursement from the insurance company
Luckily, there are other solutions to this problem. One that has worked well in our experience is using a mail order pharmacy company which will provide medications ordered by your authorized treating doctors without requiring preapproval. One such pharmacy is Injured Workers Pharmacy.
Injured Workers Pharmacy will go ahead and provide the medication and deal with getting payment from the insurance company later. This allows you to receive the medication you need without any unnecessary delays.
