Cases

A JCC's award of unauthorized emergency room treatment is reviewed for competent substantial evidence.  Court reversed JCC's determination that medical care was provided on an emergency basis.  However, there was no competent substantial evidence to support the fact that the medical treatment was causally related to the workplace injury.  It was the claimant's burden to prove that the treatment, although provided on an emergency basis, was related to the compensable accident.  The causal relationship for conditions that are not readily observable must be shown by medical evidence only.  The claimant's testimony standing alone will not support a finding that the treatment was causally related and medically necessary for a compensable injury.

On cross appeal, JCC's denial of temporary partial benefits for a period of time was reversed.  The test for determining whether physical limitations after an accident are a contributing cause to a loss of wages is whether the claimant's capabilities allow her to return to work at a prior job with the employer and whether the workplace injury caused a change in the employment status resulting in a reduction of wages below 80% of her pre-injury average weekly wage.  Once the claimant satisfies the initial burden of proving a causal connection for wage loss, this causal connection remains the established cause unless and until an intervening or superseding cause is demonstrated by the employer/carrier.  In this instance, the employer/carrier did not establish affirmative defenses to the initial finding of a causal relationship between the accident and reduced wages, i.e., deemed earnings because work was available or voluntary limitation of income, either of which would have been an intervening or superseding cause, the JCC erred in denying payment of benefits for periods of time subsequent to the finding that the accident on the job caused wage reductions.