His doctor ordered more therapy. Delta read it as a green light to cut pay
A Georgia appeals court has reversed Delta Air Lines' cut to an injured baggage handler's workers' comp benefits.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia handed down its decision on October 26, finding the airline had jumped the gun when it slashed the worker's payments - because the medical report it relied on never actually cleared him to return to the job.
The worker hurt his lower back lifting baggage as part of his duties at Delta. He reported the injury promptly and, from September 7, 2022, began receiving full temporary disability payments of $725 a week, based on his average weekly wage of $1,510.30.
Nearly a year later, Delta moved to cut those payments.
On August 14, 2023, the airline filed a WC-104 form - the standard Georgia paperwork for converting a worker's benefits from full temporary disability down to partial - with the State Board of Workers' Compensation. The form told the worker his authorized treating physician had released him to work with restrictions. Delta is self-insured, with Sedgwick CMS, Inc. as its servicing agent.
Attached to the form was a medical report from the physician, dated July 17, 2023.
Here is where the story turns.
That report was a follow-up visit. The physician reviewed the results of a CT myelogram - a diagnostic scan of the worker's lower spine - and examined him for pain running down both legs. He diagnosed ongoing pain conditions in the lower back and nerve irritation. He prescribed daily medication and told the worker to attend "as many sessions as possible" of work conditioning physical therapy over two weeks, with a follow-up appointment in three weeks.
Under the report's patient instructions, the physician noted one restriction: no lifting more than 15 pounds.
What the report did not say - anywhere - was that the worker was cleared to go back to work.
The worker's benefits were converted to partial disability at $438 a week, effective July 2024. He contested the change, but a workers' compensation judge denied his challenge, finding the 15-pound lifting restriction was enough to show the worker could handle duties with limitations. The Board's appeals panel adopted that ruling. So did the Superior Court of Fulton County.
The Court of Appeals disagreed.
Under Georgia's workers' compensation law (OCGA 34-9-104(a)(2)), an employer can only cut a worker's full temporary disability benefits to partial after the treating physician releases the employee to work with restrictions. The accompanying Board Rule requires the employer to attach a medical report that demonstrates on its face the worker "is capable of performing work with restrictions."
Georgia treats its workers' comp system as a "humanitarian measure" to be read broadly in the worker's favour. That means employers must "strictly comply" with the rules before they can unilaterally cut someone's benefits.
The court found the July 17 medical report missed the mark on several fronts. It made "no recommendation at all" about the worker's ability to return to work. Instead, it showed the physician believed the worker still needed physical therapy and another appointment before any return could happen. The report prescribed more treatment - not a green light.
Then there was the 15-pound restriction.
The workers' compensation judge had explicitly acknowledged that the restriction was "not a change in the worker's restrictions or work status" but "merely a restatement" of a limit the physician had set at earlier appointments - going back to September 2022, October 2022, and June 2023. None of those earlier reports had cleared the worker to return either.
The court pointed to its own precedent: a medical report used to justify a benefits cut must reflect a "reasonably concurrent examination and determination of the employee's condition, not a mere reaffirmation of an otherwise untimely examination." It also found the workers' comp judge had erred by looking at reports from other medical providers - including a prior release from a different clinic, Peachtree Occupational Medicine - that fell outside the 60-day window Georgia's statute requires.
The reasoning was simple: if restating a 15-pound lifting restriction was enough to count as a return-to-work clearance, Delta should have filed the paperwork the first time that restriction appeared in the medical records. It never did.
The court reversed the lower court's order and sent the case back to the Board to consider whether the worker should be awarded attorney fees and to issue a ruling consistent with the appeals court's opinion.
For HR teams managing return-to-work processes, the case puts it plainly: a medical report that prescribes more treatment and restates an old restriction is not a release to work, and building a benefits conversion on one can undo the whole thing.
