Do I Get Paid for Workers' Comp Medical Appointments During Work Hours in California?

Do you get paid for workers' comp medical appointments during work hours in California?

Often, yes. A medical-legal exam set up by the insurer or a judge works one way. The statute gives you a separate day of disability pay for it. A routine visit with your own treating doctor works differently. Your care and travel costs are covered. The missed hours are usually just part of your regular disability check.

Workers' compensation splits these visits into two ideas. The split changes who pays what. A "medical-legal" appointment is an exam that settles a disputed question in your claim. It is often a QME or AME exam, short for a qualified or agreed medical evaluator. A "treatment" appointment is ordinary care from your own treating doctor, called a primary treating physician, or PTP. Its goal is to cure or relieve your injury.

This page covers both kinds of visits. You will see what the law pays for lost time. You will see who owes mileage and other travel costs. You will see how to schedule around work without losing pay, and what records protect you.

How does Labor Code 4600 pay for this kind of exam?

Section 4600(e) is the key rule. It gives you a full day of disability pay for each day of wages you lose attending a required exam.

The rule covers exams set up by the insurer, often called the claims administrator or payor, the administrative director, the Appeals Board, or a workers' compensation judge. In plain terms, that means your QME exam, your AME exam, or any other exam one of those parties schedules. The payment applies even after you return to work. You do not need to already be drawing a weekly check. The law counts this in days, not hours. You get a day's disability payment for each full day of wages the exam cost you. It comes on top of your other benefits, not instead of them.

When at the request of the employer, the employer's insurer, the administrative director, the appeals board, or a workers' compensation administrative law judge, the employee submits to examination by a physician, the employee is entitled to receive, in addition to all other benefits herein provided, all reasonable expenses of transportation, meals, and lodging incident to reporting for the examination, together with one day of temporary disability indemnity for each day of wages lost in submitting to the examination.

The 2026 weekly disability rate sets the floor and ceiling behind that daily figure.

Temporary disability weekly rate	2025	2026
Minimum	$252.03	$264.61
Maximum	$1,680.29	$1,764.11

What is the difference between a medical-legal exam and a regular treatment appointment?

A medical-legal exam is ordered by someone else to settle a disputed question, and section 4600(e) pays your lost wages and travel for it. A regular treatment appointment is care from your own doctor, covered a different way, through the general duty to provide treatment.

Two different rules separate two different costs. One covers the bill for the visit itself. The other covers what you are owed for your own lost time. Labor Code section 4622 controls who pays for a medical-legal evaluation and its report, the bill the evaluating doctor charges. Your own wage loss and travel are a separate question under section 4600(e). In practice, the payor pays the QME or AME directly for the evaluation. It separately owes you the exam-day wage payment and your travel costs.

For a routine treatment visit, section 4600(a) requires your employer to provide care that is "reasonably required to cure or relieve" your injury. The DWC's benefits page confirms you get back reasonable travel costs for that care, including mileage, parking, and bridge tolls. The law does not set a separate day-of-wages rule for these ordinary visits. That special rule is only for an exam someone else requires. If you are already off work on disability, the appointment time already falls inside your weekly check. If you have returned to work and need to leave during a shift, ask in writing whether that absence is paid. The next section covers how to make that request stick.

How do you schedule a workers' comp appointment without losing pay?

Tell your supervisor and the payor about the appointment as soon as it is set. Ask in writing whether that time is paid, and under which rule. Keep the confirmation.

Most of these appointments run on someone else's calendar, not yours. A QME office, a specialist, or your own doctor's clinic sets the date. As soon as you have a date and time, tell your supervisor and the payor in writing. An email or text works. That way both sides have notice before the day arrives.

Ask directly whether the absence is paid under section 4600(e). Ask whether it is charged against an open disability period instead. Ask about other options too, such as paid leave for part of the shift. Getting the answer in writing before the appointment heads off a dispute about a missing paycheck later.

Labor Code section 132a makes it illegal for an employer to fire, threaten, or otherwise punish a worker for pursuing a comp claim. Reasonable time for a required exam or necessary treatment is part of pursuing that claim.

Are mileage, parking, and bridge tolls reimbursed for these appointments?

Yes. Both kinds of appointments qualify for reasonable travel costs, including mileage, parking, and bridge tolls. The per-mile rate depends on the date of the trip.

Section 4600(e) sets a floor of 21 cents a mile for exam travel. The real rate is often higher: the state's own mileage rate, whichever number is bigger. The Division of Workers' Compensation publishes and updates that higher rate. The same approach applies to travel for ordinary treatment under section 4600(a).

Rates change during the year. Use the rate in effect on the date of each trip, not today's rate for an older visit. For the current cents-per-mile figure, the claim form, and how to log each trip, see how to get medical mileage reimbursed.

What should you keep to get paid correctly for appointment time and travel?

Keep the appointment notice, a record of your missed hours, your pay stub, a mileage log, and any written request you sent asking to be paid.

• The notice or letter that scheduled the exam or visit, including who asked for it.
• A note of the date, the start and end time, and whether you missed a full or partial shift.
• The pay stub covering that period, so a missing day is easy to spot.
• A mileage log with the date, starting address, destination, and round-trip miles, plus parking or toll receipts.
• Copies of any email or letter asking to be paid, and the reply you got back.

If a payment is late or refused, the DWC Information and Assistance Unit can explain the next step. For what happens when a claim or a specific payment is refused more broadly, see workers' comp claim denied in California.

Palmdale attorney Eman Yazdchi reviews Antelope Valley workers' compensation claims. That includes disputes over unpaid exam days, travel costs, and retaliation for taking time for medical care. Every matter is reviewed on its own facts, and whether the firm takes a case depends on those facts.

If a payor is not paying what Labor Code section 4600 requires for your appointment time or travel, call (661) 273-1780 or use the contact form. Describe what happened and what you have documented.

Related reading: what medical treatment workers' comp covers, Labor Code 4600 medical treatment duty, AME and QME exams explained, and how long temporary disability lasts.