The mileage rate changed mid-year. Which rate does your trip earn?

The two rates of 2026

Workers’ compensation borrows the number, and the DWCDWC Division of Workers’ Compensation, part of the Department of Industrial Relations. Administers the system. Information Services Center: 1-800-736-7401. announces it.

The mileage rate is not a workers’ compensation number. In the words of the Division of Workers’ Compensation, the state agency that runs the system, the Labor Code, a Government Code section and the state’s human resources regulations “establish the mileage reimbursement rate for medical and medical-legal travel and tie it to the rate established by the Internal Revenue Service.” When the federal rate moves, this one moves with it, and the DWC announces the change in a newsline, its numbered public notice.

In 2026 it moved twice.

• January 1, 2026: 72.5 cents a mile. Up 2.5 cents from the 70 cents paid for travel in 2025. The DWC announced it on January 5, in Newsline 2026-02.
• July 1, 2026: 76 cents a mile. Up 3.5 cents. The federal increase was announced on July 13, and the DWC’s notice, Newsline 2026-60, followed on July 23. The new rate reached back to every trip from July 1.

Because the rate is borrowed, it does not follow the January 1 cycle that resets most workers’ compensation figures. It last moved in the middle of a year on July 1, 2022, from 58.5 to 62.5 cents. And it does not only rise: it fell for travel in 2020, from 58 cents to 57.5, and again in 2021, to 56.

A long claim can carry trips from several of those years, and each trip keeps its own year’s rate: 65.5 cents in 2023, 67 cents in 2024, 70 cents in 2025. Every rate here was read again at the DWC on October 20, 2026. If you are reading this much later, check the current rate first.

Mileage and travel reimbursement Every rate, with its source

The rule: the rate follows the trip

Not the date of injury, and not the date of the check.

Every trip earns the rate in effect on the day you made it. That one sentence does most of the work in this article. Three other dates float around a mileage claim, and none of them sets the rate.

• The date of injury does not set it. A worker hurt in 2019 who drives to physical therapy in August 2026 is paid 76 cents a mile for that trip. The age of the claim is irrelevant.
• The date you send the request does not set it. A trip from November 2025 earns 70 cents even if the log goes in after July 1, 2026. Waiting does not earn the newer rate.
• The date of the check does not set it either. A check written in July for trips in May pays May’s rate, 72.5 cents. A check for trips from July 1 owes 76 cents for them, even if it was written before the DWC announced the change.

The date of the trip does. A 24-mile round trip on June 30, 2026, earns $17.40. The same trip on July 1 earns $18.24. The 84 cents between them is the whole rule in one example.

A year is the wrong question. A worksheet that asks only what year you traveled cannot express a change on July 1. If a reimbursement comes back showing one rate and no dates, the missing dates are the error.

The rate follows the trip, not the injury and not the check.

Why it runs the other way from temporary disability

Two rates in one claim, set by different dates.

The mileage rule is easy to confuse with the rule for temporary disability, the weekly checks that replace wages while you recover. The two sit side by side in the same claim, and they run in opposite directions.

Temporary disability looks back to the injury. The weekly rate is two-thirds of your average weekly earnings, between a minimum and a maximum, and those limits are the ones in effect on your date of injury. For an injury in 2026 they are $264.61 and $1,764.11 a week. They do not change as the claim runs into later years, with one exception: a temporary total disability payment made two years or more after the injury is computed at the limits in effect on the day it is paid.

Mileage looks at the day. The rate is whatever applied on the day you drove, trip by trip, with no two-year wait.

Each rule protects something different. The temporary disability rule fixes your wage-loss rate at the start of the claim. The mileage rule ties each reimbursement to the rate in force when the driving was done. A log paid at the rate from the year you were hurt is a natural mistake in a file full of disability checks, and one worth looking for.

The 2026 temporary disability rates, and which year’s rate you get How much do I get paid while off work?

A list that crosses July 1

Split it at the date, line by line.

Most mileage goes in as a list, a month or a season of appointments, and in 2026 many of those lists cross July 1. Each side of the list is computed at its own rate.

An illustrative season of therapy. Take a 24-mile round trip to physical therapy, about once a week from April through September: twelve visits through June 30 and twelve from July 1.

• Twelve visits through June 30: 288 miles at 72.5 cents, $208.80.
• Twelve visits from July 1: 288 miles at 76 cents, $218.88.
• The correct total, split at July 1: 576 miles, $427.68.
• The whole list at 72.5 cents: $417.60, which is $10.08 short.
• The whole list at 76 cents: $437.76, which is $10.08 over, wrong in the other direction.

Small per trip, not small across a claim. The difference is 3.5 cents a mile. It grows with every mile on the wrong side of the line. It is easy to miss and easy to prove.

The check that tells you. Divide the mileage paid, leaving out parking and tolls, by the miles claimed. On a list that crosses July 1, a correct payment lands between the two rates. Exactly 72.5 cents means every trip was paid at the January rate, and the July trips are short. Exactly 76 cents means the earlier trips were paid at the later rate.

Earlier years work the same way. A log that runs from 2025 into 2026 is split at January 1, at 70 cents and then 72.5.

Medical mileage calculator, rate by travel date

A worked log, start to finish

Six trips, one page, every number checkable.

The DWC’s mileage form asks for six things on each line: the date, where you traveled from, where you traveled to (the name and address of the doctor, hospital or therapist), the round-trip mileage, parking and tolls. A log kept in those columns is a request already written. Here is one, illustrative, that crosses July 1, 2026.

1. June 23, physical therapy: 24 miles round trip at 72.5 cents, $17.40.
2. June 26, physical therapy: 24 miles at 72.5 cents, $17.40.
3. June 29, the pharmacy: 6 miles at 72.5 cents, $4.35.
4. July 1, physical therapy: 24 miles at 76 cents, $18.24.
5. July 7, the treating doctor: 18 miles at 76 cents, $13.68, and $6.00 for parking.
6. July 10, physical therapy: 24 miles at 76 cents, $18.24.

The totals. Through June 30, 54 miles at 72.5 cents is $39.15. From July 1, 66 miles at 76 cents is $50.16. With the $6.00 for parking, the request is $95.31.

Reading the check against it. Suppose the payment is $93.00: $87.00 for 120 miles, and $6.00 for parking. Divide $87.00 by 120 and you get exactly 72.5 cents. That is the January rate on every line, and the three July trips, 66 miles in all, are short by 3.5 cents a mile: $2.31. The correct $89.31 for the miles works out to about 74.4 cents a mile, between the two rates, which is what a correctly split list looks like.

The rate follows the trip, not the injury and not the check.

Two forms, or one page with the rates on it. The DWC publishes a form for each rate period, and 2026 has two: one printed at 72.5 cents for travel from January 1, and one at 76 cents for travel from July 1. A log that crosses the date goes on both, or on your own page with the rate on every line.

What counts as travel

More than the miles, and more than the doctor.

The DWC’s own description is broad. An injured worker “is entitled to reimbursement of reasonable expenses of transportation if they have to travel to get treatment for a work injury,” and those expenses include “mileage, parking, and bridge tolls.”

• Every treatment destination. The DWC lists travel “to and from doctors, hospitals, therapy or pharmacy.” Imaging counts the same way.
• Parking and bridge tolls. As their own lines, on top of the mileage, with receipts where you have them.
• Public transportation, and other travel costs. The DWC’s form says “public transportation and other travel-related costs are also included.” A bus or train fare belongs on the log the way a mile does.
• The trip to a medical-legal evaluation. That is an examination to answer a disputed medical question in the claim, usually by a Qualified Medical EvaluatorQME Qualified Medical Evaluator. A state-certified physician who resolves disputes. Unrepresented workers get a panel of three by random draw. (a QME) or an Agreed Medical EvaluatorAME Agreed Medical Evaluator. A physician both sides agree on. Available only to represented workers, and practically very hard to move away from. (an AME). The trip is reimbursable like any other, and when it is an examination you were sent to, the law adds more.
• Who drove does not matter. A spouse’s car or a ride from a family member is still your trip. Log the date, the miles and who drove.

If you cannot drive at all. Where the injury or a prescribed medication makes driving unsafe, transportation itself can fall within the employer’s duty to provide treatment. Ask your treating doctor to document in the report that you cannot drive, and why, then request transportation in writing. 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., the insurer’s check of whether a treatment request is medically necessary.

If the distance is the problem. A medical provider networkMPN Medical Provider Network. Your employer’s list of physicians. After the first visit you may switch within it without permission., the list of doctors most injured workers choose from, has to place a primary treating physicianPTP Primary Treating Physician. The doctor directing your care. within 30 minutes or 15 miles of where you live or work, and specialists within 60 minutes or 30 miles. A drive well beyond that is an access problem, not only a mileage one.

I can’t drive to my appointments They sent me to a doctor far away

An examination you are sent to

Transportation, meals, lodging and a day of temporary disability, paid before you go.

When the employer, its insurer, the Administrative Director (who heads the DWC), the Workers’ Compensation Appeals BoardWCAB Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. The court system that decides these cases. 23 district offices statewide. or a judge asks you to be examined by a physician, the law provides more than mileage. You are entitled, in the statute’s words, to “all reasonable expenses of transportation, meals, and lodging incident to reporting for the examination, together with one day of temporary disability indemnity for each day of wages lost in submitting to the examination.”

Meals and lodging, where the examination requires them. And a day of temporary disability for each day of wages lost: if attending costs you a day’s pay, you are owed a day of temporary disability for it. Almost nobody claims it.

Paid with the notice, not afterward. The statute says the mileage and tolls “shall be paid to the employee at the time the employee is given notification of the time and place of the examination.” The DWC’s rules for auditing claims administrators say the same from the other side. For an evaluation the administrator schedules, not paying these expenses when it notifies you draws a penalty in an audit. For one scheduled by the Administrative Director or the Appeals Board, it has 14 days from receiving notice of it.

An illustrative trip. An evaluation 45 miles from home, set for September 2026, is a 90-mile round trip. At 76 cents that is $68.40, plus any bridge toll, owed when you are told the time and place. If the appointment needs an early start or a night away, meals and lodging belong in the same written request.

Sent to a QME? From the panel to the report What happens at my QME appointment

When it has to be paid

The administrator’s clocks, and the two that are yours.

The statute says when examination mileage and tolls are due: with the notice. For the rest, the timetable is in the DWC’s regulations for auditing claims administrators, the insurers and companies that handle claims for employers. They set a penalty for each failure:

• to pay transportation, meals, lodging and the day of temporary disability when notifying you of a medical evaluation the claims administrator scheduled;
• to pay those expenses within 14 days of receiving notice of a medical evaluation scheduled by the Administrative Director or the Appeals Board;
• to object or pay “any reasonable transportation expenses incurred to obtain medical treatment or evaluation, within 60 days of receiving a request.”

The third is the one most mileage logs meet. Once your written request arrives, the administrator has 60 days to pay it or to object. If it objects, ask which trip, and why. Silence is not an answer.

What those rules are. They are the schedule the DWC uses when it audits a claims administrator’s files. They tell you what the state treats as on time. In your own claim, the remedy for a late or refused payment is the penalty in the next section.

The DWC’s own advice at 60 days. The mileage form says it plainly: “If your travel costs are not paid within 60 days, contact the information and assistance officer.” Every DWC district office has an Information & Assistance officer, who answers questions and helps with forms at no cost.

Three of these clocks belong to the claims administrator. Two are yours, and the last does not wait for you to notice.

When it is late, short or refused

A written request first, then a penalty a judge can award.

Mileage is compensation, the law’s word for the benefits a claim pays. That matters, because where payment of compensation is unreasonably delayed or refused, a workers’ compensation judgeWCJ Workers’ Compensation Judge. Decides your case. There is no jury. can increase the amount delayed by up to 25% or up to $10,000, whichever is less. Compensation for this purpose includes medical treatment, medical-legal expense and mileage, not just disability checks.

• The deadline is two years from the date the payment was due, not from when you noticed. An old log is still worth submitting, but the two years run from when each payment was due, whether or not anyone was counting.
• The test is reasonableness. A delay caused by the administrator’s own disorganization, an unread request or an unreturned call is not made reasonable by the absence of bad intent.
• The employer has a way out, and it can help you. If it finds a delay before you claim a penalty, it may pay a self-imposed 10% of the delayed amount within 90 days, and that resolves it without a hearing. A delay raised promptly, in writing, with the log attached, is easier to fix that way.

The automatic 10% is a different rule. The law adds 10% to a late disability check by itself, without anyone asking. That rule is written for indemnity payments, the checks that replace wages. The penalty that reaches mileage is the one for unreasonable delay, which has to be shown.

Put it in writing first. A dated email or letter to the adjuster: the trips, the miles, the rate for each period, the total and what was paid. Its arrival starts the 60 days, and it removes “we didn’t know” from any later defense.

Late payments and penalties The 10% the law adds to a late check

Keeping the log, or rebuilding it

Kept as you go, or rebuilt from the providers’ records.

Reconstructed mileage a year later is what gets disputed. A log kept as you go is the opposite: dated, specific and dull, the way evidence should be. The DWC’s guidebook for injured workers gives the same advice: “Keep records of any out-of-pocket expenses that workers’ compensation could cover (like prescriptions or travel costs to medical appointments).”

Measure each route once, on a map, round trip, and use that number every time. Write the line the same day. Send the original form to the insurance company and keep a copy; it does not go to the Appeals Board or the information and assistance officer. Send it a month at a time: a short list is easy to check, and each request starts its own 60 days.

A mileage file to keep:

• The log — Every trip: the date, from, to, round-trip miles, parking and tolls.
• The receipts — Parking, tolls and fares, and for an examination away from home, meals and lodging.
• Each request you sent — A copy, the date it went, and that date plus 60 days.
• Each payment — The date, the amount and the miles it covered, divided out to a rate per mile.
• Every examination notice — The date it arrived, and whether the mileage came with it.
• The providers’ printouts — Visit dates from each front desk, if you are rebuilding.

When you do not need a lawyer for this

Most mileage problems are arithmetic.

Not every mileage problem calls for a lawyer.

• A list paid at one rate. A written request with the split worked out, line by line, is the right first step.
• A request with no answer after 60 days. That is what the information and assistance officer is for, and the DWC’s own form says so.
• A missing parking or toll line. Send the receipt and the date.

A review is worth having when mileage is a symptom of something larger: requests refused outright, treatment you cannot get to, or a claim where nothing is paid on time. A consultation with this office costs nothing, and if there is nothing worth doing, we will tell you that.

When you don’t need a lawyer