A win on the merits did not stop the compliance clock from ticking
A Tennessee employer beat a worker's bid for more comp benefits - then got referred for penalties over a months-late specialist panel.
In a June 8, 2026 expedited hearing order, the Tennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims denied Terry Painter's request to force his employer, Hollingshead Development, to authorize a specific hip surgeon and to pay additional temporary disability benefits going back to May 2025. But in the same order, Judge Audrey Headrick referred the case to the state's Compliance Program for penalty assessment, finding the employer had failed to timely offer a panel of hip specialists after the treating doctor made a referral.
Painter fractured his right hip on August 6, 2024, after falling from a cement tanker truck onto a concrete pad. His treating physician, Dr. Michael Yee, performed emergency surgery and oversaw months of physical therapy. By February 2025, Dr. Yee said the bones had healed. He assigned no restrictions and recommended Painter stay weight-bearing as tolerated. Hollingshead paid temporary disability benefits through May 19, 2025, when Dr. Yee discharged Painter to follow up as needed.
A second physician, Dr. Case Sanders, placed Painter at maximum medical improvement in July 2025 during an independent medical evaluation. That date became important later.
The compliance problem started in December 2025. Painter had returned to Dr. Yee complaining of groin and hip pain. After ordering a CT scan, Dr. Yee referred Painter to an orthopedic hip specialist, noting in an addendum that the likelihood of arthritis was increased due to the type of fracture related to the original work injury. Hollingshead did not offer a panel. In a March 2026 causation questionnaire, Dr. Yee added that the CT scan showed some avascular necrosis of the femoral head with mild resultant arthritis, related to the proximal femur fracture.
Only after that did Hollingshead move. It first directed Painter back to Dr. Sanders - the same doctor who had performed his independent evaluation. Painter declined. In April 2026, the employer offered a panel. Painter picked Dr. Jason Rogers, but Rogers declined the case after reviewing the records. A revised panel followed, this time including Dr. Sanders, and Painter did not make a selection. He asked the court instead to order treatment with Dr. Mark Freeman.
The court refused. Under Tennessee Code Annotated § 50-6-204(a)(3)(A)(ii), when a treating physician refers an employee to a specialist, the employer has three business days to either accept a designated physician or provide a panel. Because Dr. Yee made no specific referral and a panel had been offered, the court held Painter was not likely to prevail on his request for Dr. Freeman.
The temporary disability claim failed for a different reason. Dr. Yee never took Painter off work and never assigned restrictions. The court held that weight bearing as tolerated is a self-limiting, subjective phrase and is not enough to support temporary partial disability. The July 2025 maximum medical improvement finding also cut off entitlement under Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-6-207(2)(A).
The employer's win came with a sting. Hollingshead, the court said, had offered the panel months after Dr. Yee's December 2025 referral, delaying because it wanted clarification on whether the referral was work-related - without any supporting medical proof of its own. Citing Lurz v. Int'l Paper Co., the court noted that parties and their lawyers are poorly positioned to formulate expert medical opinions, and referred the case to the Compliance Program for penalty assessment under Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-6-118(a)(8)-(9).
For HR and risk-management leaders, the case is a tight reminder that procedural duties in workers' compensation run on their own clock. A causation concern is not a stop sign on the panel obligation. If an employer wants to question whether a specialist referral is tied to the work injury, the order suggests the right move is to get medical evidence quickly - not to delay the panel and hope to sort it out later. Winning on the merits, as Hollingshead did here, does not erase the compliance exposure.
A status hearing is set for August 5, 2026.
The case is Terry Painter v. Hollingshead Development, LLC, decided by the Tennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims at Chattanooga on June 8, 2026.
