Interest Payments on Professional Fees for Work Injury Treatment

Are physicians entitled to interest payments on late payments for services performed in work injury cases?

A.:  Yes.  The Workers’ Compensation Act contains a prompt payment provision provisions for interest payments that require employers to pay providers within 30 days of receipt of the bills, as long as the claim contains substantially all the required information.  If the claim does not contain sufficient information, the employer or insurer must notify the provider within 30 days. 

When an employer or insurer fails to pay a properly submitted bill within 30 days of receipt bill, interest is due at a rate of 1% per month payable to the provider. Any required interest is due within 30 days after payment.

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The legislature made changes in 2018 that empowered physicians to collect interest in workers compensation cases. In short, medical professionals may file lawsuits to enforce interest payments from insurance companies on medical service workers’ compensation claims that are paid late. Essentially, this means medical providers, including chiropractic physicians, can take court action to enforce interest payments owed to them by insurance companies for workers’ compensation claims. These changes in legislation give medical providers the required “standing” in court that they did not previously have.

Additionally, the new legislation clarified that medical providers may sue for interest only on claims that have been paid. In other words, they could not sue for interest on unpaid claims.