Indiana Court of Appeals Rules for Injured Employee

The Indiana Court of Appeals recently overturned a decision of the Indiana Worker’s Compensation Board denying continued coverage of a prescription for an injured employee in the case of Albright v. Four Winds, Int’l. The injured employee had been prescribed a drug for pain relief from an orthopedic injury that could also be used to treat depression.

The Board had decided that the employer was not responsible for paying for indefinite use of the drug because the employer had not accepted depression as a compensable consequence of the employee’s work-related injury. The Court of Appeals ruled that, since the medication reduced the employee’s pain and helped return her to partial function, the medical evidence clearly supported an award of continued provision of the drug, even if it might also be alleviating her depression.

You can read the full decision here.