Skipping one step now puts the company in front of state investigators
Dispute the claim all you want - a Tennessee employer still had to cover its injured worker's care, and now faces a state penalty referral.
The order, entered August 5, 2026, followed a low-back injury the worker reported to BK Plumbing on January 28, 2026, after lifting and carrying a 45-pound box of insulation. He asked for benefits. None were offered. He visited an emergency room that day.
BK Plumbing fought the claim. It denied that the injury arose primarily out of and in the course and scope of his employment, and argued he had not shown, through expert opinion, that his job was more than 50% responsible for his condition. The company pointed to his medical history: he had hurt his back years earlier and needed surgery, though the court noted he had not treated it for over a year before the work injury.
That is where the case turned. The court found that BK Plumbing relied on its own reading of the medical records and offered no expert proof. It quoted an appeals board warning that parties "cannot rely on their own medical interpretations of the evidence to successfully support their arguments, and they face significant risks if they choose to do so."
At this interim stage, the worker did not have to prove his whole case, only that he was likely to prevail later. His uncontradicted testimony and same-day emergency records met that bar.
The court ordered BK Plumbing to provide a panel of three orthopedic physicians for the worker to choose a treating doctor and to cover reasonable, necessary treatment. Under Tennessee law, that duty is triggered once an employer receives notice of a workplace injury and the worker requests care.
BK Plumbing did not. The court referred the company and its carrier to the state Bureau's Compliance Program for investigation and a penalty over the failure to timely offer a panel.
The ruling was mixed. The court denied the worker's request for temporary disability benefits for now, because he had not shown he was off work or provided evidence of his average weekly wage.
For HR teams, the message is direct: the duty to offer a medical panel turns on notice and a request for care, not on whether the employer accepts the claim. The order is interim, with a status hearing set for December 17, 2026.
