Doctor to Stop Seeing WC Patients After Fight With Insurer

Tuesday, February 12, 2019 | 2

A Florida psychologist in the middle of well-publicized workers' compensation case says he's had enough of insurers dictating medical treatment and is calling it quits.

Dr. Frank Schultz, of Winter Haven, Florida, told a Tampa TV news station that he will no longer treat injured workers after Travelers Insurance denied reimbursement for treatments Schultz had prescribed to a man who was badly injured in a food plant explosion.

Plant manager Neil Eckelberger was burned and suffered a concussion and other injuries when a reactor at Natural Advantage Food Flavorings in Lakeland exploded in 2017. In Florida, the employer or workers' compensation carrier picks the physician, or can require the worker to stay within a network of providers.

Schultz, chosen by Travelers, recommended a relatively new but well-regarded brain-mapping treatment, known as eVox, for Eckelberger's traumatic brain injury. Travelers declined the treatment.

"My concern is that there is no oversight for whoever's administering the workers' comp, because if Mr. Eckelberger is an example of what can happen and nobody's looking over somebody's shoulder to make sure that it doesn't, that concerns me," Schultz added.

If insurers send him patients but won't let him do his job, he doesn't want the hassles, Schultz told WFLA-TV in Tampa, which broke the story this month of Eckelberger's fight with the insurance carrier.

Schultz and Eckelberger's attorney have accused Travelers of spending more money on legal fees opposing the medical treatments than the treatments would have cost.

"The insurance company's job is to indemnify the person, which means to put that person back to where they once were, to the best of their ability," Neil's wife, Robin Eckelberger, told the TV news. "They've not done that with my husband."

Travelers has said it has provided appropriate care for Eckelberger.

A hearing before a workers' compensation judge is set for March 26.