With opioid abuse taking so many lives and making headlines across the country, even properly prescribed use of those drugs to treat serious, chronic pain is under scrutiny. It’s recently become common for injured workers who use a narcotic pain medication regimen – even those who’ve been doing so safely and effectively for years to manage crippling spine injuries or nerve disorders - to see the treatment in their case challenged by the insurance adjuster. Or sometimes the treating doctor will spontaneously suggest an alternative. In any event, the issue of medical marijuana has been elbowing its way into many workers’ compensation cases. And the client’s inevitable question is, “Will the carrier pay for this treatment?”
Attorney O’Connor addresses this issue in an article published in the most recent issue of the New Hampshire Bar News. The state’s Department of Labor is currently refusing to order insurance carriers to pay for therapeutic cannabis that is legally prescribed to injured workers, but the law in this area is unsettled and quickly changing. On behalf of his client, Attorney O'Connor has challenged the Department of Labor's position in an appeal pending before the NH Supreme Court.
Read more about this case and this evolving area of law: https://www.nhbar.org/publications/display-news-issue.asp?id=8972
O’Connor’s practice focuses on Workers' Compensation, where he exclusively represents injured workers.
.1).2107290729371.png)
