work injury travel reimbursement

Mileage Reimbursement

Medical and Transportation Reimbursement

You are entitled to mileage reimbursement for medically-related travel expenses for your workers’ compensation injury.  This includes travel to and from the doctors, IME appointments (including travel to pick up X-Rays, MRIs, etc. for IME exams), physical therapy, or visits to other medical practitioners.  IT DOES NOT COVER travel to pick up prescriptions, meet with your attorney, or to look for work.  

The mileage reimbursement rates are set forth in the table below:  
Start DateRate (¢/mile)Start DateRate (¢/mile)
1-1-1854.51-1-2365.5
1-1-1958.01-1-2467.0
1-1-2057.51-1-2570.0
1-1-2156.0
1-1-2258.5 1-1-26 or later use Fed business rate
7-1-2262.5

The WCB mileage rates follow the federal business mileage available here.

  1. Write the dates, the name and address of the medical provider, and the round trip mileage on a modified C-257 form along with your identifying information such as name, case number, etc. If you are good with computers you can also use the this excel spreadsheet to calculate your mileage.  
    • You can find the dates of your medical appointments through the Workers’ Compensation Board’s eCase system. After you have registered for eCase, you can login here. Make sure you do not request reimbursement for telemedicine visits.  Physical therapist and chiropractors often put multiple visits on a single bill, so make sure you list every visit.
  2. Calculate the amount of reimbursement you are requesting by multiplying the roundtrip mileage by the appropriate mileage reimbursement rate.  
    • Please note that when the carrier audits your request they will look in your Board file and if the provider has not submitted a bill or report for a specific date they will most likely deny reimbursement for any dates they cannot verify. Carriers often calculate mileage via MapQuest or a similar program so their calculations may differ slightly from yours.

Submit Your Workers’ Compensaiton Mileage Reimbursement Request

  1. SEND A COPY OF YOUR REIMBURSEMENT REQUEST DIRECTLY TO THE INSURANCE CARRIER.
    • Your adjuster’s contact information can be found by logging into eCase , then clicking on the FROI/SROI tab, and then scrolling to the bottom.
    • If you do not receive payment within 2 months or do not receive the full amount of your request with an explanation of what hasn’t been paid, reach out to the carrier. If they do not respond, please call or email.
  2. Send a copy to the Workers’ Compensation Board
    • By mail to Workers’ Compensation Board, P.O. Box 5205, Binghamton, NY 13901, or
    • via fax to 1-877-533-0337, or
    • by email wcbclaimsfiling@wcb.ny.gov. You must include your name and WCB Number in the subject line. The Board only accepts the following file formats: TXT, .DAT, .JPG, .JPEG, .GIF, .PNG, .BMP, .DOC, .DOCX, .PPT, .PPTX, .RTF, .XLS, .XLSX, .TIF, .TIFF, .PDF, .VCF, .LNK.
  3. Keep a copy of your reimbursement request for your records. If you don’t keep a copy, you run the risk that the insurance company will lose the copy you sent and you will have to start your reimbursement request from scratch.

If you do not have a vehicle available to you, you may be entitled to be reimbursed for taxis and/or any other needed forms of transportation.  Please discuss this with us. Please make sure you keep receipts and list those expenses on the C-257 form.

Other Reimbursements

You are also entitled to reimbursement for medical expenses including medications, medical equipment, etc., prescribed for your work-related injury, up to the amount allowed by the Workers’ Compensation Pharmaceutical Fee Schedule, available at http://www.wcb.ny.gov under health care providers, and fee schedules.  Your doctor must get most prescriptions pre-approved or the carrier may not have to pay.  Most carriers will issue you a prescription card because it costs them less if prescriptions are purchased as part of their plan. If the carrier has given you a prescription card, the carrier may not have to reimburse you for prescriptions purchased outside of that plan.  

Non-prescription medications and medications that are not related to an established work-related injury are not covered under Compensation.

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