Georgia Workers’ Comp Mileage: 2026 Rate Update

After a Georgia workplace injury, you’re not just dealing with medical treatment and lost paychecks. You’re also spending your own money driving to doctor’s appointments, physical therapy, and the pharmacy. You have a right to get that money back. Knowing how to claim mileage reimbursement as part of your workers’ comp benefits is key to getting every dollar you’re owed under Georgia law.

The Legal Basis for Medical Travel Reimbursement in Georgia

Georgia’s workers’ compensation system is set up to cover your medical bills and a portion of your lost wages, but it also covers other related costs. One of the biggest, and most often missed, is mileage reimbursement for your medical trips. The rule for this comes from the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act, specifically O.C.G.A. Section 34-9-200.1. That law requires the employer or their insurance company to pay for reasonable medical expenses, and that has long been interpreted to include the cost of getting to and from your medical care.

The State Board of Workers’ Compensation (SBWC) sets the exact rate you get paid, tying it to the IRS business travel rate. For 2026, that rate is $0.67 per mile. This isn’t a suggestion. It’s a mandate from the state. The rate applies to every round trip you make to an authorized doctor, a lab for tests, or a pharmacy for your work-injury prescriptions. The whole point is to make sure that you, the injured worker, aren’t paying out-of-pocket just to get the medical care you need. This is a big deal, especially for workers in rural Georgia who might have to drive hours to see a specialist in Atlanta, Augusta, or Savannah.

You also have to understand what “authorized medical care” actually means. It means the treatment has to come from your authorized treating physician or a doctor they referred you to (and the insurer approved). If you just decide on your own to see a new chiropractor that isn’t on your approved panel of physicians, you can bet the insurer won’t pay for those trips. Always double-check that your appointments are with approved providers to keep the insurer from having a reason to deny your mileage reimbursement.

What Travel Expenses Are Covered?

So what exactly can you get reimbursed for? Your workers’ comp mileage reimbursement in Georgia covers more than just the miles on your car. The main part is the per-mile rate, which is meant to cover gas and the general wear and tear on your vehicle. But there’s more to it.

Here’s what’s typically covered:

• Mileage to Medical Appointments: This is the big one. It covers your drives to and from your authorized treating physician, any specialists, physical or occupational therapy, and any other approved medical provider.
• Mileage for Diagnostic Tests: If your doctor sends you for an MRI, X-ray, or CT scan at another facility, the trip there and back is covered.
• Pharmacy Visits: Your drives to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions for your work injury are reimbursable. People forget these short trips, but they definitely add up over time.
• Tolls and Parking Fees: If you have to pay tolls on the highway or pay to park at the doctor’s office, you can get that money back. You must have receipts for these.
• Public Transportation Costs: If you take the bus or use a service like MARTA in Atlanta to get to an appointment, the fare is reimbursable. Just like with parking, you have to keep the receipts.
• Ambulance or Non-Emergency Medical Transport: If you need an ambulance or a medical transport service and it’s approved as medically necessary, that cost is covered as a medical expense, which is handled a bit differently than your personal vehicle mileage.

You have to be careful here. The insurance company is only paying for your medical travel, not for personal errands. If you swing by the grocery store on your way home from a physical therapy session, you can’t claim those extra miles. The travel has to be specifically for getting authorized medical care. Insurers look closely at these logs, and they’re not in the business of paying for things they don’t have to, so any deviation can get your whole submission flagged or denied.

Documentation is Paramount: Keeping Accurate Records

If you want to get your mileage reimbursement paid, it all comes down to your records. Without a good log, you can pretty much forget about it, even if the travel was 100% legitimate. This is the single most important piece of advice I can give anyone on this topic.

Here’s the information you need to write down for every single trip:

1. Date of Travel: The exact date you made the trip.
2. Purpose of Travel: Be specific (e.g., “Appt with Dr. Smith,” “PT session,” “CVS for prescription refill”).
3. Destination: The full name and address of the clinic, hospital, or pharmacy.
4. Starting Point: Usually your home address.
5. Round-Trip Mileage: The total miles for the trip. The easiest way to do this is to use Google Maps to calculate the exact distance from your home to the facility and back, then print out the directions to include with your log. This gives the adjuster very little to argue about.
6. Tolls and Parking Receipts: Tape every single receipt to a piece of paper and submit it with your log. No receipt means no reimbursement for that cost. It’s that simple.

Get a small notebook to keep in your car or use a spreadsheet on your phone to log everything right after your appointment. Don’t try to remember this stuff a month later. You’ll get dates wrong or forget trips entirely, and every forgotten trip is money you’re leaving on the table. When the adjuster gets a clean, organized log, they have fewer reasons to kick it back.

Ask the adjuster how often they want the logs, some prefer them submitted monthly, while others are fine with quarterly. Whatever their process is, get your paperwork in on time. Sending logs in sporadically just invites questions and makes it more likely your request gets buried on a busy adjuster’s desk, delaying your payment.

The Reimbursement Process and Potential Challenges

Once you’ve kept a good log, you need to actually submit it for mileage reimbursement. This means sending your detailed log, along with copies of your receipts for tolls and parking, directly to the workers’ comp insurance company. Ask the adjuster if they have a specific form they want you to use. Many do. Fill it out completely and make sure it’s easy to read.

Of course, the process isn’t always that easy. Insurers will look for any reason to question your request:

• Sloppy Records: This is denial reason #1. A log with missing dates, vague descriptions of the trip, or no receipts for tolls is going to get rejected.
• Unauthorized Treatment: If you went to a doctor that wasn’t approved by the insurer or the SBWC, they will not pay for your travel.
• Disputed Mileage: An adjuster might question your mileage total if it seems too high. This is why including a printout from a mapping service is such a good idea, it shuts down that argument before it starts.
• Late Submission: While there’s no hard legal deadline, if you wait six months to submit your mileage, the adjuster is going to be suspicious and it will be harder to get it approved.
• Just Plain Delays: Sometimes the check is just late because the adjuster is swamped or your log is at the bottom of a stack. It often takes a few polite but firm follow-up calls to get it processed.

If your reimbursement request gets denied or just sits there unpaid for no good reason, you can fight back. First, call the claims adjuster, find out exactly why it was denied, and see if you can fix it by providing more information. If that goes nowhere, your next move is to file a Form WC-14, Request for Hearing, with the Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation. This starts a formal process where a judge will review the facts and order the insurer to pay if they’re in the wrong. This is where having an experienced Georgia attorney who knows the SBWC’s rules becomes a huge advantage.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Ensuring Full Coverage

Getting your medical travel reimbursement in a Georgia workers’ comp case takes some work on your part. You can’t just sit back and wait for a check. Many injured workers are already dealing with pain and stress, and keeping track of these little trips feels like a burden. But if you don’t do it, you could easily lose out on hundreds or even thousands of dollars over the life of your claim.

A huge mistake is thinking the insurance company will automatically track and pay your mileage. They won’t. The responsibility is 100% on you to log the trips and ask for the money. Another common error is tossing receipts for tolls and parking. You can calculate mileage after the fact, but you absolutely need proof of payment for those direct expenses. I’ve had clients drive through multiple tolls on I-75 to see a specialist in Atlanta and lose that money simply because they didn’t keep the receipts.

Also, make absolutely certain that every doctor you see is an authorized provider. If your primary treating physician refers you to a specialist, your next call should be to the adjuster to confirm that referral is approved by the insurer *before* you make the appointment. Travel to unapproved medical care will not be reimbursed, period.

Finally, if you keep hitting a wall with the insurer, get some help. The rules of workers’ compensation law can be confusing, especially when you have to fight for benefits they’ve denied. An attorney who focuses on Georgia workers’ comp can make sure your documents are in order, advocate for you with the insurer, and represent you before the State Board of Workers’ Compensation, or even in an appeal at the Fulton County Superior Court if it comes to that. They know the procedural rules, like those in the Rules and Regulations of the Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation, and can stop you from making a simple mistake that harms your claim.

Getting your mileage reimbursement for medical travel isn’t optional, it’s a required part of your workers’ compensation benefits in Georgia. If you understand the rules, keep good records, and are ready to push back on disputes, you can make sure you aren’t paying for the costs of your own recovery.