IBP, Inc. v. Harker

TERNUS, Justice.

Iowa’s workers’ compensation statute requires an employer to reimburse an employee for the costs of an independent medical examination (IME) when “an evaluation of permanent disability has been made by a physician retained by the employer and the employee believes this evaluation to be too low.” Iowa Code § 85.39 (1997). In this case, the industrial commissioner ruled that the employer was required to pay for its employee’s IME, even though the employee, not the employer, chose the treating physicians who had rendered disability ratings that the employee thought were too low.…