Workers' Compensation Medical Benefits as "Property"
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| The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that a person shall not be deprived of his property without due process of law. The issue of whether workers' compensation medical benefits are "property" under the Fourteenth Amendment was addressed by the United Supreme Court, which held that such determination hinged on the individual's entitlement to such benefits.
In most state workers' compensation statutes, an employer who is liable for an employee's work-related injury is responsible for the payment of the employee's medical expenses. However, the employer is generally not responsible for all such expenses. Rather, the employer's obligation extends only to the payment of "reasonable" or "necessary" medical expenses. Thus, when an individual challenges a state action on the basis that it has deprived him of a protected property interest in workers' compensation medical benefits, the individual must demonstrate that he is entitled to such benefits based on their status as "reasonable" or "necessary." Copyright 2010 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. |