CAN YOU CHOOSE YOUR OWN WORKERS COMP DOCTOR IN VIRGINIA? THE PANEL OF PHYSICIANS, EXPLAINED

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

You choose — but from a list. Virginia is a “panel state”: your employer must offer a panel of at least three doctors, and you pick your treating physician from that list.

The panel must be valid. Three or more physicians, not in the same practice or group, and reasonably accessible to you. An invalid panel may not bind you at all.

No panel? Your pick. If your employer never provides a proper panel after you report the injury, you can generally select your own doctor — and that doctor becomes the authorized treating physician.

Your treating doctor runs the case. Work restrictions, referrals, causation opinions, and your impairment rating all flow from this one choice.

Refusing care has consequences. Unjustified refusal of authorized medical treatment can suspend your wage benefits under Virginia Code § 65.2-603.

Within days of a workplace injury, someone hands you a piece of paper with three doctors’ names on it and asks you to pick one. Most injured workers have no idea that this small moment is one of the most important decisions in their entire claim.

So, can you choose your own workers comp doctor in Virginia? The honest answer is: yes — but from a list your employer writes, and only if that list follows the rules. This guide explains how the panel of physicians works, what makes a panel invalid, when you get free choice, and why the doctor you pick will shape every benefit that follows.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

– Who Picks Your Workers Comp Doctor in Virginia?

– What Makes a Panel of Physicians Valid?

– What If Your Employer Never Gives You a Panel?

– What Happens in an Emergency?

– Why Does the Treating Doctor Matter So Much?

– Can You Switch Doctors After You Choose?

– What About the Insurance Company’s IME Doctor?

– Can You Refuse Treatment Without Losing Benefits?

– An Attorney’s Point of View: The Panel Mistake That Costs Workers Their Cases

– Watch and Learn

– Frequently Asked Questions

WHO PICKS YOUR WORKERS COMP DOCTOR IN VIRGINIA?

Virginia splits the choice. Under Virginia Code § 65.2-603, your employer must furnish medical attention for a compensable work injury at no cost to you — and it does that by offering a panel of at least three physicians. You then select one doctor from that panel.

The doctor you select becomes your authorized treating physician. That title matters more than it sounds. The insurer must pay for the care this doctor provides and orders, and the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission gives this doctor’s opinions significant weight on the questions that decide cases.

Notice what Virginia is not. It is not a state where the insurance company simply assigns you a doctor, and it is not a state where you can start with any physician you like and send the bill to the carrier. Skipping the panel and treating on your own — outside the exceptions below — usually means paying for that care yourself.

WHAT MAKES A PANEL OF PHYSICIANS VALID?

Not every list of three names is a lawful panel. Drawing on the statute and decades of Commission decisions, a valid panel generally must have:

At least three physicians. Two names is not a panel. Neither is one urgent-care clinic with three locations.

Independent practices. The doctors cannot all be partners or associates in the same practice or corporate group. Three physicians from the same occupational-health chain may not be a genuine choice at all.

Reasonable accessibility. The doctors should be reasonably convenient to the injured worker. A panel of physicians two hours from your home, for a worker who cannot drive, invites a fight.

Timely delivery. The panel must be offered promptly after you report your injury — not weeks later, after the employer has steered you to its preferred clinic.

If the panel you were handed fails these tests, you may not be bound by it. That is not a technicality; it can mean the difference between treating with a doctor the employer picked and treating with a doctor you trust.

WHAT IF YOUR EMPLOYER NEVER GIVES YOU A PANEL?

This happens more often than you would think, especially with smaller employers. You report the injury, and no one ever hands you a panel.

The general rule from the Commission’s decisions: if the employer fails to provide a valid panel within a reasonable time, you may choose your own doctor — and the physician you choose becomes the authorized treating physician whose bills the insurer must pay for reasonable, necessary, causally related treatment.

In other words, the most common way workers end up freely choosing their own workers comp doctor in Virginia is an employer that ignored its panel duty.

Three practical cautions. First, you still must report your injury to your employer within 30 days, and file your claim with the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission within two years of the accident — choosing the right doctor protects nothing if the claim itself dies on a deadline. Second, document the gap: note when you reported the injury and that no panel followed. Third, if a panel does arrive late, talk to an attorney before ignoring it; whether a late panel binds you is exactly the kind of dispute the Commission decides.

WHAT HAPPENS IN AN EMERGENCY?

Emergencies are the exception to everything above. If you are hurt badly enough that you go straight to the emergency room — by ambulance or otherwise — that emergency care is covered even though no panel was involved.

The panel rules pick back up when the emergency ends. Once you are stabilized and discharged, follow-up care moves to the panel process: the employer should offer the panel, and your choice from it becomes your treating physician for the rest of the claim. Many workers get tripped up here, assuming the ER physician or the hospital’s referral is automatically their doctor going forward. It is not — not until the panel question is sorted out.

WHY DOES THE TREATING DOCTOR MATTER SO MUCH?

Because in a Virginia workers’ compensation case, nearly every benefit runs through the treating physician’s pen.

Work status. Your wage benefits — temporary total or temporary partial disability — depend on the treating doctor’s written work restrictions. If the doctor says you can work full duty, the checks stop, no matter how you feel.

Referrals. Specialists, physical therapy, MRIs, pain management, surgery — the referral chain flows from the treating physician, and the insurer must pay for treatment within that chain.

Causation. When the insurer questions whether your condition is related to the accident, the treating doctor’s opinion is usually the most important piece of evidence in the file.

Permanency. When you reach maximum medical improvement, the impairment rating that drives any permanent partial disability award typically starts with — or is measured against — the treating physician’s assessment.

This is why the sixty seconds you spend looking at a panel deserve real thought. You are not picking a clinic for a sore throat. You are picking the voice the Commission will listen to for years.

CAN YOU SWITCH DOCTORS AFTER YOU CHOOSE?

Not freely — and this surprises people. Once you select from a valid panel, that physician is your authorized workers comp doctor in Virginia for the life of the claim. If you simply stop going and start treating with someone else, the insurer generally does not have to pay for the new doctor, and gaps in authorized treatment give the carrier ammunition.

There are three legitimate paths to a new doctor:

A referral. If your treating physician refers you to a specialist or transfers your care, the new doctor is inside the authorized chain. This is the cleanest route and the most common one.

Agreement. The employer or insurer can agree to a change in treating physician. It happens — sometimes a relationship genuinely is not working — but get any agreement in writing before you switch.

A Commission order. Under § 65.2-603, the Commission “may order a change in the medical or hospital service” when there is good cause — for example, treatment that is not progressing, a breakdown in the doctor-patient relationship, or care that falls below standards. You file, you prove it, the Commission decides.

What you should not do is vote with your feet first and sort out the paperwork later. In a system where the treating physician’s records decide your benefits, an unauthorized switch can quietly cost you both the bills and the credibility.

WHAT ABOUT THE INSURANCE COMPANY’S IME DOCTOR?

At some point in a contested claim, the insurer may schedule you for an independent medical examination (IME) under Virginia Code § 65.2-607 — an evaluation by a physician the carrier selects and pays.

Two things every injured worker should understand. First, you generally must attend: an unjustified refusal to appear for a properly scheduled IME can suspend your benefits. Second, the IME doctor is not your doctor. The IME physician examines you once, writes a report for the insurer, and prescribes nothing. Your treatment, your restrictions, and your referrals still belong to your authorized treating physician.

Treat the IME professionally — show up, be honest, be consistent — but never confuse it with care. If an IME report contradicts your treating doctor, that conflict is a legal problem to be litigated, not a signal that your treatment is over.

CAN YOU REFUSE TREATMENT WITHOUT LOSING BENEFITS?

Carefully, and only with good reason. Section 65.2-603 is blunt: an unjustified refusal of medical services provided by the employer “shall bar the employee from further compensation until such refusal ceases,” and no compensation is paid for the period of suspension unless the Commission finds the refusal justified.

The Commission judges justification from the worker’s point of view: the risks of an invasive procedure, a documented history of failed similar treatment, or conflicting medical advice can all matter. Skipping appointments because the office is inconvenient, or stopping physical therapy because progress feels slow, generally will not.

The practical rule: never silently stop treating. If you have real concerns about a recommended surgery or a course of care, raise them with the doctor, get a second opinion through proper channels, and talk to a lawyer before you decline. The difference between a justified and unjustified refusal can be your entire wage-benefit stream.

AN ATTORNEY’S POINT OF VIEW: THE PANEL MISTAKE THAT COSTS WORKERS THEIR CASES

After years of handling Virginia workers’ compensation claims, the doctor-selection error we see most is not picking the “wrong” name from a valid panel. It is treating the panel moment as a formality.

Consider a (hypothetical) claimant we will call “Marcus,” a 38-year-old distribution-center worker in Henrico County with a lifting injury to his shoulder. The day after he reported it, HR handed him a single sheet listing three “options” — all occupational-medicine physicians, all billing through the same corporate clinic group, the nearest one 40 minutes away. Marcus circled the first name, was seen for eight minutes, and was returned to full duty in two weeks while he still could not raise his arm overhead.

That panel was almost certainly invalid — three names, one practice group, dubious accessibility. Because it was invalid, Marcus likely had the right to select his own orthopedic surgeon and have the insurer pay. Instead, by the time he sought advice, he had months of “full duty” work-status notes in his file from a clinic doctor he never had to accept. Unwinding that record was harder than winning the panel fight at the start would have been. (This illustration is for education only; outcomes vary by case.)

The lesson: read the panel before you circle a name. Count the practices, not just the names. Map the addresses. And if anything looks off, get advice within days, not months — the medical record being written in week one is the evidence your case will stand on in year two.

WATCH AND LEARN

Prefer to watch instead of read? Our companion video walks through how the panel of physicians works in Virginia — the three-doctor rule, what makes a panel invalid, when you can pick your own workers comp doctor in Virginia, and how the treating physician shapes your wage and medical benefits.

> Watch: Can You Choose Your Own Workers’ Comp Doctor in Virginia? (Harbison & Kavanagh)

[ VIDEO COMING SOON ]

For the step-by-step view of the rest of your claim, see our related guide: Navigating the Workers’ Compensation Process in Virginia: 5 Essential Steps.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Can I see my own family doctor for a work injury in Virginia?

Generally not at the insurer’s expense. Your workers comp doctor in Virginia must come from a valid panel, a proper referral, or free choice after the employer fails to offer a panel. Treating outside the authorized chain usually means the bills are yours.

Q: How many doctors must be on a Virginia workers comp panel?

At least three, and they must be from independent practices — not three physicians in the same group — and reasonably accessible to you.

Q: What if I already picked a panel doctor and I don’t like them?

You cannot simply switch on your own. Ask about a referral, seek the insurer’s written agreement, or petition the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission for an ordered change of physician.

Q: Does the insurance company’s IME doctor become my treating doctor?

No. The IME physician examines you once for the insurer under Virginia Code § 65.2-607. Your authorized treating physician continues to direct your actual care.

Q: Will workers’ comp pay for my travel to medical appointments?

Yes — mileage to and from authorized medical appointments is reimbursable, currently at 70 cents per mile (the rate effective January 1, 2025). Keep a log of every trip.

Q: Can refusing surgery end my workers’ comp benefits?

An unjustified refusal of recommended treatment can suspend wage benefits until the refusal ends. Whether a refusal is justified is judged from your point of view — but get legal advice before declining significant care.

TALK TO A WORKERS’ COMPENSATION ATTORNEY ABOUT CHOOSING YOUR DOCTOR

At Harbison & Kavanagh, we are dedicated to helping you navigate the workers’ compensation process. If you have been injured on the job and have questions about your panel of physicians or your right to choose your doctor, call us today at (804) 888-8000, or visit our contact page to schedule a free consultation. Our experienced lawyers are here to provide the support and guidance you need.