How to Get Your Mileage Reimbursement in Virginia

How to Get Your Workers Comp Travel Expenses

Virginia law allows for injured workers to receive a mileage reimbursement for their travel expenses for trips to the medical appointments, meetings with vocational rehab counselors, and job interviews. If you’re not sure how to get your mileage reimbursement, I’ll explain the process for you here.  Keep in mind, workers compensation insurance doesn’t reimburse mileage for driving to the pharmacy or going to a hearing. The workers compensation insurance company will reimburse mileage for accepted claims. They will not reimburse mileage for denied claims – until the claim has been won at a hearing or accepted by the insurance company.

How to Complete the Mileage Reimbursement Form

1) Completely fill in the MILEAGE REIMBURSEMENT FORM including your name, address, employer (at the time of the injury), social security number, date of birth and date of accident.

2) Fill in the chart including the dates you traveled, TRAVELED FROM information (including address), TRAVELED TO information (including address), the total ROUND TRIP MILEAGE and any BRIDGE TOLLS/PARKING/PUBLIC TRANSIT expenses in the appropriate column.

1. a. If you have to take a taxi or other form of public transportation you do not  have to fill in the mileage amount. You can simply list the TRAVELED FROM and TRAVELED TO addresses and the cost of the taxi ride or bus ride but you MUST keep your receipt.

3) For ROUND TRIP MILEAGE, go to MapQuest or Google Maps and print out the directions page showing the distance to and from the desired locations.  You need to do this for each different location you have traveled too.These print outs need to be attached to the form when the form is submitted for reimbursement.

4) Once you have completed the chart, total up all the miles in the ROUND TRIP MILEAGE column and list this figure in BOX A.

5) Once you have the amount of BOX A, multiply it by $0.555 (or multiply by $.505 for mileage expenses incurred prior to October 1, 2011). This will give you the dollar amount of your reimbursement for the miles traveled; list this figure in BOX B.

6) Total up the cost of any public transit, bridge tolls, turnpike fees or cab fare and insert this total into BOX C.

7) Add BOX B and BOX C together and insert this figure into BOX D, this is the amount of your total reimbursement.

8) For any trips made or costs you are requesting reimbursement for, you MUST:

1. Show that you were at the appointment. This can be done by getting a print out from your medical provider(s) showing a list of appointment dates when you were seen. The easiest document that shows you were actually seen by a medical provider is called a “Bill Payment History.” An appointment card is not sufficient proof to show that you were present for an appointment.
2. Show the total distance of travel that you are requesting.  This is done by the MapQuest or Google Maps print outs that you attach.

9) Sign the MILEAGE REIMBURSEMENT FORM at the bottom and attach all necessary documentation.

Submit the Mileage Form for Payment

10) Keep a copy of the documents for yourself and send one copy to the insurance adjuster and, if applicable, send one copy to your attorney’s office for their file. That way, if the attorney’s office needs to follow up on the progress of your mileage reimbursement, they will have a copy of your mileage reimbursement submission in order to do so.

11) If you have not received your mileage reimbursement check within 3 weeks, call your attorney’s office and let them know. If you do not have an attorney working on your claim and have not received your mileage check, you can call the insurance adjuster directly.

If you need mileage forms, you can call our office today (804) 755-7755. Or, visit this page and print them out.

How to Calculate Mileage Reimbursement for Workers’ Comp. Employee

If you need to calculate mileage reimbursement, use this guide.

_____ If it’s an uncontested case, then call the client to see if mileage has been submitted or when was the last time it was submitted and the last time they were paid.

_____ Get the bill payment history for all of the Medical Providers by faxing a request to each provider.

Follow up in 2 weeks and then weekly thereafter until we get the bill payment history.

_____ MapQuest round trip mileage from the client’s home to the medical provider’s address.

_____ Organize the information* on the Mileage Reimbursement Form

*The information should be organized chronologically, according to appointment date

_____ Add up total miles.

_____ Using the VWCC mileage benefits chart, multiply the total round-trip mileage by the reimbursement rate of the corresponding year.

_____ Add any reimbursement from Parking, Bridge Tolls, Public Transportation, etc. (if applicable)

_____ Give completed Mileage Reimbursement form along with MapQuested directions to the paralegal for review.

Send out a copy of the bill payment history’s and mileage chart with a cover letter to the adjustor. CC the client just the cover letter.

Follow up in 2 weeks and then weekly until the client gets his mileage check. If more than 8 weeks pass, notify the paralegal.

Filling out Your Reimbursement Forms: A Video

Video Transcript

When you are under a workers compensation award, part of your medical benefit includes mileage reimbursement for your trips to and from the doctor and other medical providers.

We’ve put together this presentation to help you learn more about receiving your mileage reimbursement.

In a contested case, it is important that you gather and keep your mileage documentation, however it will not be possible to submit mileage and receive reimbursement until after your claim is accepted and medical treatment has been approved.

If your claim has been accepted, the process and procedure for getting mileage reimbursement is that you would submit the mileage forms along with proof of doctors visits. This can be a little tricky as the assumption is that since the insurance company is paying for you to visit the doctor, then they will know that you have made the visits, however the process doesn’t really work that way.

You need to have proof of each visit along with any other expenses for the visit, such as tolls or maybe even a taxi ride for the doctors visit. These items are then submitted to the insurance adjuster, then in about 30 to 45 days you will receive a reimbursement check.

If you have not received your reimbursement check in this time period you would need to contact your attorney or if you do not have any attorney, then contact the insurance adjuster to find out why you have not received your mileage check.

If you contact your attorney, we will then contact the insurance company and keep contacting them until they have confirmed the status of the check, given us information on what might be missing or what additional information they are in need of in order to process the mileage reimbursement payment.

The most important part of this is that the insurance adjuster is mailing the mileage check directly to you, so it’s very important to let us know when you have received the check. If we don’t know that you have received your check, we’ll keep pursuing that check for you.

You may go to our website, injuredworkers.staging.wpengine.com and download the mileage reimbursement form or you can create your own form to include all of the needed information.

You need to make sure that you include your name, address, employers name, social security number, date of birth and the date of the accident on the form.

Next you need to fill in the chart with the dates that you traveled to and the dates that you traveled from and then double this for Round Trip mileage.

For example you’ll see on the chart that you would enter the date, then your home address and then the address of the doctor, hospital or therapist and your round trip mileage which is the total mileage from your home to the doctor and back. Also, be sure to include any other expenses, such as tolls, parking or other transportation.

To determine your actual round-trip mileage, a great short cut is to use mapquest.com or googlemaps.com. Type in your address and the address of the medical provider. If you double the distance this will be your round trip mileage that you would log for the visit.

Be sure to print and keep a copy of the Mapquest or Google maps directions and send them with your mileage reimbursement form, as the insurance adjuster will also confirm the round trip mileage and not just take your work for it. By sending the directions that you used, you should be getting your reimbursement check sooner.

Make sure that you total the round trip mileage and write it in Box A. If your mileage report will be several pages long, I suggest that you subtotal each page.

Once you have the total number of round-trip mileage, multiply the mileage by 55.5 cents, the amount that is reimbursed at this time. If you happen to have mileage from before October 1, 2011, or after January 1, 2013, please call our office for the correct reimbursement rate.

Make sure that you total any additional costs such as tolls, cabe fare, parking, etc and list that expense in box C. Be sure to include a copy of the receipts with your submitted form.

Next add boxes B and C together to get your total reimbursement amount.

Lastly, sign and date the form and mail the packet to the insurance adjuster. Keep a copy for your records and send a copy to your attorney as well.

If you haven’t received your reimbursement check within 3 weeks, contact your attorneys office so they can put some pressure on the adjuster to hurry up and reimburse you or if you don’t have an attorney working on your claim you can contact the adjuster directly.

FAQs

Does workers’ compensation cover my expenses for trips to see doctors or get treatment?

Yes, when you’ve been involved in a work-related injury, part of your workers’ compensation benefits will be paid (calculated by miles traveled) to reimburse you for the money you spend going to doctors or treatment and therapy sessions as long as you have proof of your attendance at those sessions.

Exactly what kind of travel expenses are covered?

You will be reimbursed for the miles you travel (round-trip) if you travel in your own vehicle or a friend or family member’s vehicle. You will also be reimbursed for any bridge or roadway tolls that you have pay along the way to get to your destination and back home as long as you get receipts for your payments.

If you use public transit or a taxi, you will not need to fill in the number of miles traveled, but you will need to get a receipt for the cost of the trip and submit it with the claim form.

How do I file for travel mileage reimbursement?

You can download a copy of a standard reimbursement form directly from the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission website. The standard rate for reimbursement as of 2020 is $0.555 per mile.

The form should be submitted directly to the administrator for your claim at the insurance company (not the Commission). You may wish to have your attorney review and submit the form for you. We will also deal with the insurance company if they deny the claim for some reason or you do not receive your reimbursement check. You should receive it within about three weeks or less.

What information will I need in order to file a mileage claim?

In addition to attaching the documentation that we mentioned above. You’ll also need to provide your full name and address, your employer, your social security number, your date of birth, and the date of the accident or claim for occupational disease.

Will I need to file a separate claim every time I go to an appointment?

No. As you’ll see when you download the form, you can make a claim for several trips all at one time. You’ll just need to keep track of the date of each trip and the purpose. Then, of course, you’ll also need to provide the corresponding documentation for each trip as well.

If you would like more information on the Virginia workers compensation system, you can order my book, “The Ultimate Guide to Workers’ Compensation in Virginia” by clicking this link, or call our office today (804) 755-7755.