Penn. workers' comp ruling hailed as 'win' for medical marijuana
A judge ruled the plaintiff deserved restitution for medical marijuana purchases and $400 per month to cover future treatment costs.
For the past three years, Jenifer Dana Kaufman of Kaufman Workers’ Compensation Law in Abington Township, Penn., has been trying to recoup costs incurred by her clients for medical marijuana to treat pain from work-related injuries.
She lost every time — until now.
With an order dated June 2, workers’ compensation Judge Rochelle Quiggle of the Pottsville, Penn., field office, ruled that Kaufman’s client’s claims were reasonable and that her former employer’s insurance provider must pay her back for roughly $4,000 worth of medical marijuana and cover the cost going forward for her treatments, which amount to about $400 per month.
“I believe this is the first time any judge has done this in Pennsylvania. I have litigated similar claims before but this is my first win, though I have appeals pending before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board and Commonwealth Court,” Kaufman said. “This is an interesting and evolving area of the law.”
Often, such claims are turned down over the conflict between state law, which legalizes the use of medical marijuana, and federal law, which does not, she said.
“It’s a start,” Kaufman said. “There has to be a first.”
The judge ruled that Kaufman’s client, a home health aide, had a credible story and told it in the order. She was badly injured in 2015 as she drove from one client’s home to another. A car crossed the centerline and hit her head-on. Her car flipped over. She was trapped inside for 20 minutes. She was taken to a trauma hospital, where she remained for 10 days. She had three broken ribs plus fractures in her legs, foot and toes. This is in addition to injuries to her hands and wrists.
Despite that, she made a recovery from most of the injuries, but she had continuing nerve pain in her ankle and leg. Sometimes it felt like an electric shock that would wake her up at night. Her pain during the day would sometimes feel like a 10 on a scale of one to 10. She didn’t want to take narcotics. Other drugs caused side effects that interfered with her ability to work. But she found a medical marijuana-based oil that she would put into capsules and take daily eased the pain enough for her to work two jobs — each 32 hours a week — one as a home health aide and another as a daycare attendant.
The judge made note of the credibility of a person choosing an alternative to opioid pain relievers and using prescription cannabis in order to work two jobs.
Michael Sebastian represented the insurance providers in the case, Arch and Gallagher Bassett Services. Sebastian did not have an immediate response to a request for comment. They have 20 days to appeal. If they do, Kaufman said she will keep litigating the issue.
“There are a lot of people using medical marijuana to treat their work injuries,” she said. “There’s a huge push to get people off opioids. The insurance companies want to get people off opioids. But then they wouldn’t pay for the medical marijuana.”
But Kaufman said Quiggle’s order gives her hope that the trend is changing for a big group of people injured while doing physically demanding work.
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