Tampa Workers Comp IME & EMA Attorney
When an insurance carrier orders an Independent Medical Examination, the word “independent” is doing a lot of heavy lifting. These exams are arranged and paid for by the employer’s insurer, conducted by physicians who frequently work for defense-side clients, and used to generate reports that challenge your treating doctor’s findings. For injured workers in Tampa, the outcome of an IME can determine whether your benefits continue, whether your authorized treatment gets cut off, and whether a settlement reflects what your injury is actually worth. Understanding what these exams are, how they work, and when to request an Expert Medical Advisor review is the kind of decision that should be made with legal guidance, not after the fact. Tampa workers comp IME & EMA attorneys at Kobal Law work with injured workers who find themselves on the losing end of a carrier-arranged exam and need someone who knows how to push back.
What is an IME?
According to Florida Statutes 440.13(5), an IME is supposed to be an objective evaluation of your medical condition, including the ways in which the condition impairs your work status. An IME can be requested by either the employer or the employee, or it can be ordered by the DWC or workers’ compensation judge. The party requesting the IME is the one who pays for the exam and any related testing. If the employee requests the IME and ultimately prevails in the case, the employer will pay for the IME as well.
The IME will consist of a physical examination along with an interview about the work you typically perform. The IME may consider issues such as the scope of your disability, whether the injury is compensable, what medical benefits are proper and whether workers’ comp is being overutilized.
The opinion of the independent medical examiner is supposed to be limited to the doctor’s area of expertise. Also, the party who selected the examiner is bound by the opinions of the examiner, but the other party can argue and challenge the doctor’s opinions. An exception is when the parties opt for a consensus IME and agree to both be bound by the physician’s opinions. Your workers’ comp lawyer can advise you on whether a consensus IME may be appropriate in your case.
If you are contacted by the employer’s workers’ comp carrier to schedule an IME, keep in mind that you are not seeing a doctor who will treat you or provide you with any follow-up care. Most likely the purpose of the IME is to lay the groundwork to deny your claim or cut off benefits. Be sure and contact a workers’ compensation attorney if you have been scheduled for an IME, but don’t miss your appointment; failing to appear can keep you from receiving workers’ compensation benefits.
What is an EMA?
EMA stands for Expert Medical Advisor. An EMA is a doctor with a current clear and active license from the Florida Department of Health who is also Board Certified in a specialty area appropriate to the particular case. When there is a disagreement about your condition among different treating physicians, between the treating physician and an IME, or between two IMEs, an EMA may be an appropriate step to resolve the dispute. An EMA is required if either party requests one or if two IMEs disagree. An EMA is optional when doctors disagree about issues such as the proper medical treatment or whether you are fit to return to work.
Under Florida Statutes 440.13(9), the opinion of an EMA is presumed to be correct. This presumption can be overcome, but it requires “clear and convincing” evidence to do so. Clear and convincing evidence is a high legal standard which requires additional effort and the skill of an experienced workers’ compensation attorney to produce.
An EMA can be obtained by filing a Notice of Conflict, in which case the judge is required to appoint an EMA. The EMA examines and evaluates the employee, conducting both a physical exam and a review of the workers’ medical records. The EMA will provide an expert opinion in the form of a written report, deposition or live testimony to assist the judge in determining the matter at hand. An EMA is a very powerful tool that can be a critical step in your workers’ compensation case.
What the Carrier’s Doctor Is Actually Doing at an IME
Florida Statutes Section 440.13 gives the employer and insurance carrier the right to have an injured worker evaluated by a physician of their choosing. That physician is not your doctor. They are not treating you and have no ongoing responsibility for your care. Their job, in practical terms, is to generate a report, and that report almost always runs in the direction the carrier wants.
Common IME findings that hurt injured workers include conclusions that the injury has reached maximum medical improvement earlier than the treating physician found, that the injury is not causally related to the workplace accident, that the claimant needs fewer restrictions than authorized, or that a proposed surgery or procedure is not medically necessary. Any of these findings gives the carrier a basis to deny authorization, reduce benefits, or pressure a settlement below the claim’s actual value.
The exam itself is often brief, sometimes only minutes long. The physician reviews records, conducts a limited physical evaluation, and issues a written opinion. That opinion carries significant weight in the workers’ compensation system unless it is directly challenged. The way to challenge it formally is through the EMA process.
The Expert Medical Advisor: Florida’s Built-In Counterweight
When there is a genuine conflict between the opinion of an authorized treating physician and the opinion of an IME physician, Florida law provides a specific mechanism to resolve that conflict. Under Section 440.13(9), either party can request that the Division of Workers’ Compensation appoint an Expert Medical Advisor. The EMA is a physician selected from a state-maintained list, not chosen by either side, and their opinion carries a presumption of correctness under Florida law.
That presumption matters enormously. It shifts the burden of proof. If the EMA sides with the treating physician, the carrier faces a much harder road in contesting authorized treatment or continuing to dispute causation. If the EMA sides with the IME physician, the injured worker’s attorney needs to find clear and convincing evidence to overcome that presumption, which is a high bar.
The EMA process is not automatic. It requires that a genuine medical conflict be established in the record. The attorneys at Kobal Law know how to document those conflicts clearly, how to present the treating physician’s position in a way that creates the strongest possible foundation for an EMA request, and how to respond when the result goes in an unexpected direction.
How IME Findings Create Real-World Harm Before a Hearing Ever Happens
One of the things injured workers often don’t anticipate is how quickly an adverse IME result can change their day-to-day situation. Benefits get suspended. Authorizations get denied. The treating physician stops getting paid by the carrier, which can affect whether that doctor continues treating the worker at all. These changes can happen fast, and reversing them takes time the injured worker often doesn’t have.
In the Tampa area, workers across a wide range of industries, from construction and warehousing to healthcare and hospitality, face this same dynamic. The carrier’s IME physician may have never set foot in the environment where the injury occurred. The report reflects a clinical snapshot of someone who came in for a short exam, not the full picture of how the injury developed, what the work demands actually require, or what the authorized treating physician has observed over weeks or months of care.
When benefits are affected by an IME report, there are procedural steps that must be taken within specific timeframes to protect the claim. Missing those steps limits options later. Getting an attorney involved as soon as the IME is scheduled, not after the results come back, gives the injured worker a much better position to respond from.
What Jason Kobal Brings to IME and EMA Disputes
Jason Kobal has spent nearly two decades representing injured workers in Florida workers’ compensation matters. Before focusing on representing workers, he worked on the defense side, representing insurance carriers. That background means he is familiar with how carriers use IME results strategically, how reports are structured to create specific legal outcomes, and where the vulnerabilities in those reports are.
He has been recognized by his peers as the top workers’ compensation attorney in the Tampa Bay area. That recognition reflects work done in exactly the kinds of disputes that IME and EMA cases require: careful review of medical records, coordination with treating physicians, preparation for hearings before judges of compensation claims, and a clear-eyed assessment of what a case is actually worth versus what a carrier is willing to offer based on a favorable exam result.
Kobal Law takes workers’ compensation cases on a contingency basis. There are no upfront fees, and no fees at all unless there is a recovery. The office handles cases in English and Spanish.
Answers to What Injured Workers Ask About IMEs and EMAs
Do I have to go to an IME that the insurance company scheduled?
Generally, yes. Florida workers’ compensation law gives the employer and carrier the right to have you examined by a physician of their choice. Refusing to attend without a legally valid reason can give the carrier grounds to suspend your benefits. That said, attending an IME with an understanding of what it is and what to expect is different from attending unprepared. An attorney can advise you before the exam on what to bring, what to say, and how to document what occurs.
Can I bring someone to the IME with me?
In many cases, yes, and it can be useful to have a witness present. What happens during the exam, how long it lasts, what tests were performed, and what questions were asked can all become relevant if the report’s findings are later contested.
What happens if the IME doctor says I’ve reached maximum medical improvement but my treating doctor disagrees?
That conflict between physicians is precisely the kind of situation that can support an EMA request. A formally documented conflict between the authorized treating physician’s opinion and the IME physician’s opinion triggers the mechanism under Florida law for appointing an independent Expert Medical Advisor. The outcome of that process can have a significant effect on your benefits and your ability to continue receiving authorized treatment.
How is the EMA physician selected?
The EMA is appointed by the Florida Division of Workers’ Compensation from a list of qualified physicians organized by specialty. Neither the injured worker nor the carrier picks the EMA physician. This is part of what gives the EMA opinion its legal weight and why establishing a clear medical conflict in the record matters so much before requesting one.
If the EMA sides with the insurance company’s doctor, is my case over?
Not necessarily. The EMA opinion carries a presumption of correctness, but that presumption can be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence. It is a high standard, but it is not an absolute bar. An attorney who understands the evidentiary requirements can evaluate whether the facts of your specific case support a challenge to an adverse EMA opinion.
Can an attorney help me prepare before the IME takes place?
Yes, and doing so can make a meaningful difference. Knowing what documentation to bring, how to describe your symptoms and limitations accurately, and what the exam is designed to assess puts you in a better position going in. The report the IME physician writes is based partly on what you tell them and what they observe in that short window of time.
Does Kobal Law handle these cases anywhere outside of Tampa?
Kobal Law represents injured workers throughout Tampa and the surrounding areas for workers’ compensation matters, including IME and EMA disputes. For fair debt cases related to workers’ compensation billing, the firm extends representation to clients statewide in Florida.
Speak with a Tampa Workers Compensation Attorney About Your IME or EMA Situation
An adverse exam result is not the end of a workers’ compensation claim. It is a decision point. The question is whether you respond to it with the legal tools available under Florida law or whether you accept the carrier’s position at face value. Kobal Law represents injured workers who are ready to push back, and the consultation is confidential. Reach out to a Tampa workers comp IME attorney at Kobal Law to talk through what happened at your examination and what options are available from here.
