“I can’t drive to my appointments.”

Two different things

Mileage reimbursement covers travel you make yourself — to treatment, the pharmacy, physical therapy, and medical-legal exams. At the rate in effect on the day you traveled, which changed mid-year in 2026 from 72.5¢ to 76¢. Parking counts, and where a trip requires it a reasonable meal can too. Calculate what you’re owed.

Transportation as medical treatment is different. Where the injury itself, or prescribed medication, makes driving unsafe or impossible, arranging transportation can fall within the employer’s obligation to provide treatment reasonably required to cure or relieve the effects of the injury.

The second one requires a physician to say so.

What to ask for

Ask your treating physician to document, in the report, that you are unable to drive — and why. A restriction against driving while taking prescribed opioids or muscle relaxants. Vision loss. A brace that prevents operating a vehicle. Post-concussion symptoms. A leg or foot injury.

“Patient should not drive” in the record is what converts this from a favor into an obligation.

Then request transportation in writing from the claims administratorClaims administrator / adjuster The person handling your claim for the insurer or self-insured employer., referencing the restriction and the appointment dates.

Expect utilization reviewUR Utilization Review. The process that approves, modifies, or denies each treatment request. A modification is a denial of what it left out.. Like other treatment requests it goes through the UR process, with the same deadlines and the same 30-day IMRIMR Independent Medical Review. The appeal from a UR denial. 30 days (10 if the dispute is only over drugs on the MTUS Drug List). clock if it is denied. How UR works.

While you sort it out

Do not miss appointments. A gap in treatment is read as improvement, and a missed medical-legal evaluation causes months of delay. What happens if you miss one.

If you are getting rides from family, log every one — date, miles, who drove. Mileage is reimbursable regardless of who was driving, and a contemporaneous log is what survives. Reconstructed mileage a year later is what adjusters reject most.

And if the distance itself is the problem, that is a separate issue with its own standards — a medical provider networkMPN Medical Provider Network. Your employer’s list of physicians. After the first visit you may switch within it without permission. has to have available physicians within defined distances of where you live or work. When they send you too far.

The related benefit nobody mentions

If you need help at home because of the injury, that is a benefit too — and a family member can be the person paid to provide it. The employer’s obligation reaches back only 14 days before the employer receives the physician’s prescription, so the date it is delivered is worth real money. How that works.