The state Supreme Court has come back evenly divided on whether language in the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act requires a workers’ compensation judge to deprive an injured worker of medical benefits on top of wage loss benefits when that worker fails to attend a required physical examination after claiming workers’ compensation.
With the court’s three Democrats deciding that the word “compensation” in Section 314(a) of the Workers’ Compensation Act does not have to include medical benefits, the decision lets stand a Commonwealth Court ruling. If the high court had found the statute’s language “must” include medical benefits, the decision would have forced workers’ compensation judges to deprive non-compliant employees of their medical benefits for the time period during which compensation would otherwise be payable.
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