Mileage and Travel Reimbursement in Workers' Comp

If your workers' compensation claim is accepted, you generally don't have to pay out of your own pocket to get to your own medical treatment. In many states, the insurer must reimburse the reasonable cost of traveling to and from authorized medical care — mileage in your own car, and often parking, tolls, public transit fares, and, for longer trips, meals and lodging. It's a line item that plenty of injured workers never bother to claim, and it adds up: months of doctor visits, physical therapy several times a week, an exam scheduled across town. Over the life of a claim, those trips are worth real money.

The catch is that almost none of it happens automatically. You have to track it, submit it on the right form, and follow up when the payment doesn't come. This article walks through what is typically reimbursable, how to document it, and what to do when nobody pays. Because workers' compensation is a state-by-state system — there are more than 50 of them, counting the states, D.C., and the separate federal programs — the mileage rate, the paperwork, whether travel is reimbursed at all, and the filing deadline all vary. What follows is the framework, not your state's specific rule. For that, go to your state's workers' compensation agency, board, or commission.

What travel is usually reimbursable

Where a state provides travel reimbursement, it generally covers "reasonable and necessary" travel connected to authorized medical treatment for the work injury. That typically includes:

• Mileage to and from appointments with your authorized treating doctor, physical or occupational therapy, specialists you were referred to, diagnostic imaging, and the pharmacy to pick up medication related to the injury.
• Trips to an independent medical examination (IME) that the insurer requires you to attend. An IME is an evaluation, not treatment, and it is the insurer that scheduled it — so the cost of getting there is commonly the insurer's to cover. Confirm how your state handles it before you go.
• Parking fees and tolls incurred getting to and from those appointments.
• Public transit fares, or rideshare and taxi costs, if you don't drive, don't own a car, or can't drive because of the injury.
• Meals and lodging when a trip is long enough — for example, when the authorized specialist is far from home and the appointment requires an overnight stay or a full day of travel. States that cover this often use a distance threshold and may require approval in advance. Check your agency's rule before you incur the expense.

Some states also reimburse the travel cost of a family member or companion who has to accompany you — for instance, when your condition means you cannot safely travel alone. Whether that is covered, and on what conditions, varies. Ask your adjuster or the state agency directly rather than assuming either way.

If you can't drive yourself

Reimbursement isn't the only option. In some states, if your injury prevents you from driving and you have no other way to get to authorized care, the insurer may be required to arrange transportation for you — medical transport, a ride service, or a prepaid rideshare — rather than leaving you to figure it out and front the cost. If you physically cannot drive, tell your adjuster (and the nurse case manager, if one is assigned) in writing, and ask what your state requires the insurer to arrange. Don't simply miss appointments because you have no ride; missed appointments get documented and can create problems for your claim. Ask for help, in writing, and keep a copy.

Prescriptions, supplies, and interpreters

Travel isn't the only routine cost injured workers pay out of pocket and then forget to bill back. Also commonly reimbursable, with a receipt:

• Prescriptions and medical supplies. If you paid out of pocket for medication, a brace, crutches, bandages, or other supplies your authorized doctor prescribed for the work injury — often because the pharmacy wouldn't bill the workers' comp carrier directly — keep the receipt and submit it for reimbursement instead of absorbing the cost.
• Interpreter services. If you need an interpreter to communicate with your treating doctor, many states require the insurer to provide or pay for interpretation as part of medical benefits, and rules on this differ. Tell the adjuster in writing that you need an interpreter arranged going forward, and ask your state agency whether interpretation you already paid for can be reimbursed.

How the mileage rate is set

States set — and periodically update — their own workers' comp mileage rates. Some adopt a federal standard rate (such as the IRS or GSA rate) for the year; others set an independent state rate that moves on its own schedule. There is no single national workers' comp mileage rate, and rates change over time, so don't rely on a number you saw somewhere else, including an old form or an old article. Your state workers' comp agency's website will publish the current rate, and your adjuster can confirm what rate applies to your claim and your dates of travel.

What to do: keep a log and file promptly

Reimbursement requests get lost, overlooked, or simply never submitted because nobody kept records. A simple log, written as you go, is the single most useful thing you can do.

1. Log every trip as it happens. For each one, record the date, the destination (provider name and address), the purpose (doctor visit, therapy, pharmacy, IME), and the round-trip miles (an odometer reading or a mapping app's mileage is fine). Record it accurately — never inflate mileage or claim trips you didn't take. Padding a reimbursement request is fraud, it is prosecuted, and it can sink an otherwise good claim. Honest, contemporaneous records are also what hold up when the insurer questions something.
2. Keep every receipt for parking, tolls, transit fares, prescriptions, and supplies. Photograph or scan them the day you get them; paper receipts fade and disappear.
3. Use your state's official reimbursement form. Most workers' comp agencies publish a specific mileage or travel-expense form (sometimes separate forms for mileage versus other out-of-pocket expenses). The correct form, filled out completely, is the fastest route to payment without back-and-forth.
4. Submit on a schedule. Many workers submit monthly, or after each batch of appointments, rather than waiting until treatment ends. Waiting raises the odds you'll misplace something, and states limit how far back you can claim — so don't sit on it.
5. Send it to the right place. Usually that's the claims adjuster handling your claim, though some states have you file with the state agency, particularly if the claim is disputed. If you're not sure, ask the state agency's claimant information line or ombudsman.
6. Follow up in writing if you aren't paid within a reasonable time. These small recurring requests are routinely overlooked in a file full of bigger issues — that's usually oversight, not bad faith. A polite written follow-up (email or letter, so there's a record) referencing the date you submitted is normal and often all it takes.
7. Escalate if you're stonewalled. If travel reimbursement is repeatedly ignored or refused without a stated reason, you can generally raise it with the state workers' comp agency's information officer or ombudsman, or file a request for a hearing or dispute resolution — the same way you would for any other unpaid benefit. Filing a claim, and asking to be paid what the system owes you, is exercising a legal right, not "suing" your employer.

Deadlines — check yours immediately

States put a time limit on submitting travel reimbursement requests, and those limits are often short. How long you have after a trip, and how far back you can reach for older expenses, varies significantly from state to state — some tie it to when the expense was incurred, others to the status of the claim. There is no national deadline, and no safe assumption that you have "plenty of time." Look up your state workers' comp agency's specific rule as soon as you start treatment and build your submission habit around it, rather than discovering later that older mileage is no longer payable. The same urgency applies to the bigger deadlines in your claim — reporting the injury to your employer and filing the claim itself — which are also state-set, also short, and also worth confirming with your state agency today.

Federal, maritime, and railroad workers are in different systems

State rules don't apply to everyone:

• Federal civilian employees are covered by the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA), administered by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP). FECA has its own medical travel reimbursement process and its own forms — OWCP-957A for mileage and OWCP-957B for other travel expenses — and OWCP reimburses mileage at the federal rate in effect on the date of travel. Some longer trips require approval in advance. Start at the OWCP medical travel refund page on dol.gov, not your state agency.
• Longshore and harbor workers are covered by the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, another no-fault program administered by OWCP, with its own rules and procedures.
• Seamen (Jones Act) and railroad workers (FELA) are not in a workers' compensation system at all. Those are fault-based systems: instead of no-fault benefits, the injured worker brings a negligence claim against the employer and has to prove fault, and their own negligence can reduce the recovery. There is no comp adjuster mailing you a mileage form; medical and travel costs are handled as part of the damages claim. If you're a seaman or a railroad worker, get advice specific to those laws.

Where this fits with the rest of your claim

Travel reimbursement is part of your medical benefits — the branch of workers' comp that pays for authorized treatment. It is separate from your wage-replacement benefits (temporary disability while you're off or on reduced duty; permanent disability after you reach maximum medical improvement), which are calculated from your average weekly wage and are not affected by whether you claim mileage. It is also separate from any Social Security disability offset question.

If someone other than your employer caused your injury — a driver who hit you, a negligent contractor on a job site — you may have a separate third-party claim outside the comp system, and the comp insurer will typically assert a lien on any recovery for what it paid out. And if your employer retaliates against you for filing paperwork or claiming benefits, that's a job-protection issue handled outside the comp claim itself. Keep the pieces straight, and use the right process for each one.

If you're stuck, you don't have to fight it alone: most state workers' comp agencies have an ombudsman or claimant information officer whose job is to help injured workers for free, and legal aid or a workers' compensation attorney can help with a disputed claim.

This article is general information about how workers' compensation systems typically work. It is not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Workers' compensation rules vary by state — confirm the specifics with your state's workers' compensation agency, board, or commission, or with a workers' compensation attorney.