New Case Alert for Oklahoma: Is the Subsequent Form A issue resolved?

In the case of St. Anthony v Goodwin, (2026 OK 3) the Claimant sustained an injury to various body parts on March 10, 2017. Claimant filed for Form A change of physician on the neck and right shoulder and two Form A orders were entered. Claimant received treatment to his right arm also and was released at MMI. The Claimant pursued a change of physician on the right arm, but the Respondent denied the request alleging that the Statute only allowed for one change of physician per case, and not per body part. As the Claimant had already had two Form As, they alleged a third should not be allowed. The ALJ ruled that the Claimant was entitled to another Form A as the statute did not limit the appointment of Form A physicians per case. The WC Commission En Banc, affirmed the decision. However, the Court of Appeals reversed the finding and found that the Claimant was only entitled to one change of physician per case.

The Supreme Court has ruled that ” the statute did not address subsequent change of physician requests nor did it limit the number of applications that could be filed, the number of changes that may be made per claim, or the number of changes per body part”. Because of the silence of the statute to address this issue, they determined it was up to the ALJ to determine if further changes should be allowed. The order of the Court of Appeals was vacated and the ALJ order was affirmed, allowing the change of physician.

In summary, it would appear that the Claimant may not be “entitled” to a subsequent change of physician but that is will be up to the discretion of the ALJ if one will be allowed. We will have to wait to determine if the ALJs will simply find this case to mean they will allow a change when requested or if they will want to hear evidence on the issue.