Bean Counter Worker’s Compensation Doctor Never Sees Patient About Whose Care He Dictates.

A worker’s compensation doctor provided a man with a psychotropic medication. Another doctor, an anesthesiologist, who had never seen the patient, determined the drug was unnecessary and decertified it for use. Typically a person gradually withdraws from the drug, but in the present case, it was suddenly stopped and the man suffered four seizures, resulting in additional physical damages. The man and his wife sued the review company and the reviewing doctor for negligence. The trial court sustained defendants’ demurrers without leave to amend. The Court of Appeal affirmed in part and reversed in part, finding that to the extent the plaintiffs are faulting the reviewing doctor for not communicating a warning to the man about gradual withdrawal, their claims are not preempted by the Workers Compensation Act [WCA] because that warning would be beyond the “medical necessity” determination made by the reviewing doctor. But to the extent the plaintiffs are faulting the reviewing doctor for incorrectly deciding the medical necessity of the drug, their claims are preempted by the WCA. (King v. CompPartners, Inc. (Cal. App. Fourth Dist., Div. 2; January 5, 2016) 243 Cal.App.4th 685 [196 Cal.Rptr.3d 696].)