JCC Denies Cervical RFA and Surgery in City of Tampa Neck-Injury Claim

In Frances Moore v. City of Tampa/Commercial Risk Management, Inc., OJCC Case No. 18-015776TSS, the claimant sought authorization of a cervical radiofrequency ablation, transportation to that procedure, and cervical surgery recommended by her IME after a 2018 police-vehicle accident and multiple prior neck surgeries. The employer and carrier answered that the treating neurosurgeon had withdrawn the RFA recommendation, that the IME did not recommend an RFA, and that the proposed surgery was not medically necessary.

Judge Timothy S. Stanton denied every live medical claim. He accepted the treating neurosurgeon Dr. Weber over the IME Dr. Hayes, found there was no current recommendation for the RFA before the court, and ruled that the separate RFA request later made by authorized pain-management physician Dr. Patel was not ripe because it belonged to a different unmediated petition. On the surgery claim, the JCC credited Dr. Weber’s testimony that the claimant’s MRI showed no stenosis or nerve-root compromise requiring another operation and found Dr. Hayes’s proposed posterior cervical surgery was not medically necessary.

The order is a useful reminder that an earlier DWC-25 approval or a later pain-management recommendation does not automatically carry a claimant’s petition at final hearing. When the authorized specialist rescinds the requested procedure and the alternative recommendation is tied to a different pending petition, the claimant can lose both the original treatment request and any transportation claim that depends on it.

Source: Compensation Order