Georgia Workers’ Comp Mileage: $0.67 Rate in 2026

When you’re working through a Georgia workers’ compensation claim, you have a lot on your plate, but one thing people constantly forget about is getting paid back for driving to the doctor. This is a significant detail. Those trips back and forth for physical therapy, specialist visits, and even just picking up prescriptions can add up to a serious amount of money, which makes a real difference when you’re hurt and can’t work. The State Board of Workers’ Compensation has clear rules for this, but many injured workers don’t get the money they’re owed because they don’t know the process.

Understanding Mileage Reimbursement in Georgia Workers’ Compensation

The law in Georgia is straightforward: if you get hurt at work, your employer or their insurance company has to pay for your medical care. But that’s not just the doctor bills. It also includes getting you *to* that care. Specifically, O.C.G.A. Section 34-9-200(a) says they have to cover “reasonable and necessary medical, surgical, and hospital care,” and that has been interpreted for a long time to include the travel to access it. As of January 1, 2026, the rate set by the State Board of Workers’ Compensation is $0.67 per mile. They update this every year, usually to match the federal rate, so it’s important to use the correct rate for the dates you actually did the driving.

Getting the insurer to pay up requires you to be organized. If you don’t have good records, they will deny your request, even for legitimate trips. This is why you absolutely have to track everything. We’ve seen it a hundred times: clients who are already overwhelmed with their injury and recovery forget about this and later realize they’ve lost out on hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Case Study 1: The Warehouse Worker’s Persistent Pain

Let’s take a real-world example. Mark, a 42-year-old warehouse worker in Fulton County, blew out his back lifting heavy equipment at his job near the Fulton Industrial Boulevard area. The injury happened in late 2025 and led to a ton of appointments, doctors, physical therapy, and imaging at places all over metro Atlanta, like Emory University Hospital Midtown and Northside Hospital Atlanta. Mark was totally focused on his recovery and getting his medical bills paid, and since he was out of work for months, money was tight.

Injury Type: Lumbar disc herniation requiring extensive physical therapy and pain management.

Circumstances: Injury happened during his normal work duties and he reported it correctly. The insurer accepted the claim but dragged their feet authorizing certain treatments, which meant more delays and more driving around for him.

Challenges Faced: Mark’s first mistake was only keeping spotty records of his travel. He was driving from his home in College Park to therapy three times a week in Sandy Springs, which is about a 40-mile round trip. Over six months, that’s more than 1,200 miles right there. Then he had specialist appointments in Buckhead, each a 30-mile round trip. His real problem was he didn’t have a consistent log. When he threw together a sloppy request for travel money, the insurer just laughed and demanded specific dates, destinations, and mileage.

Legal Strategy Used: When he came to us, the first thing we did was get him to rebuild his travel logs from scratch. We had him dig up appointment cards, pharmacy receipts, and we even used his phone’s GPS history to piece it all together. We built a detailed spreadsheet that cross-referenced every entry with his medical records to prove each trip was necessary, listing the date, the provider’s name (e.g., “Dr. Smith, Northside Hospital,” “Apex Physical Therapy”), and the exact mileage. We also made sure the insurer understood how much all these “little” trips were adding up to.

Settlement/Verdict Outcome: The insurer’s first move was to try and pay for only a few of the trips. After we sent a formal demand for everything, pointing them to Rule 200.2(a) of the Rules and Regulations of the State Board of Workers’ Compensation on medical expenses, they came back with an offer for 80%. We didn’t take it. After we threatened to request a hearing before the State Board, they finally agreed to pay 100% of the documented mileage, which came out to about $950 in mileage reimbursement on top of his other benefits.

Timeline: The whole process took about four months from when he first sent in his messy records to getting the final check, which just goes to show that even getting paid for something this straightforward can turn into a fight.

Case Study 2: The Construction Worker’s Knee Injury

Maria, a 35-year-old construction worker in Gwinnett County, had a nasty fall from some scaffolding at a Lawrenceville job site and destroyed her knee. Her injury was bad enough to need surgery and a long, tough rehab schedule. To make things more complicated, the complexity of her injury meant she had to see a specific orthopedic surgeon who was a lot farther from her home than the other doctors on the insurer’s list.

Injury Type: Torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) requiring surgical repair and specialized physical therapy.

Circumstances: The injury happened at work, and the claim was accepted. They approved the surgery, but the insurer started pushing back on paying for her travel to the specialist, claiming there was a closer option.

Challenges Faced: Maria was smart and tracked her mileage from day one in a simple notebook, writing down the odometer readings for every trip to her surgeon in Sandy Springs and her physical therapist in Duluth. Her problem was proving that trip was necessary. The insurer, of course, pointed to a list of their approved doctors who were closer to her house. This is a classic insurance company move. They’ll always argue for the cheaper, closer option to try and save a buck.

Legal Strategy Used: Our argument was that her specific ACL tear needed this particular surgeon, who was known for handling complex knee surgeries. We got a letter from the surgeon’s office confirming it and pointed out that her own authorized treating doctor was the one who made the referral in the first place. Her perfect little notebook, with entries like, “Dr. Lee, North Atlanta Orthopedic, 5505 Peachtree Dunwoody Rd NE, Sandy Springs,” became the evidence they couldn’t argue with. Under Georgia law, if the authorized doctor sends you to a specialist, the travel to that specialist is almost always reimbursable, and it doesn’t matter if there are other doctors who are closer.

Settlement/Verdict Outcome: In the end, the insurer gave in and reimbursed Maria for every mile she documented. Her travel expenses over eight months added up to about $1,800, calculated using the different rates that were in effect during her travel period. That money was a huge help, since she was on light duty for a long time and her paychecks were smaller.

Timeline: This part of her claim was wrapped up with her other medical and wage benefits, taking about seven months from the injury to get all the outstanding travel claims paid in full.

Case Study 3: The Truck Driver’s Long-Haul Recovery

David was a 55-year-old trucker out of Savannah who hurt his shoulder badly when his rig was rear-ended on I-16 near Pooler. The injury was a torn rotator cuff that needed surgery and a very long course of physical therapy. Because he needed to be 100% to keep his commercial driver’s license (CDL), his treatment was intense.

Injury Type: Rotator cuff tear requiring surgery and prolonged rehabilitation.

Circumstances: It was a clear work-related accident and the workers’ comp claim was accepted right away. The problem was that David lived in a rural area outside Savannah, meaning the best medical facilities were a long drive away.

Challenges Faced: David’s main problem was just the sheer amount of driving. His frequent trips to his orthopedic surgeon and physical therapy clinic in downtown Savannah were a 60-mile round trip each time. A consult in Brunswick was 150 miles. A trip to Jacksonville, Florida, for a second opinion that the insurer had authorized was over 250 miles. He was smart and used a digital mileage tracking app on his phone, which gave precise records, but the insurer started making noise about the necessity of the out-of-state travel.

Legal Strategy Used: We just handed them the complete log from his app, every trip, date, time, medical provider, and purpose was right there in black and white. For the Jacksonville trip, we showed them the written recommendation from his authorized Savannah doctor, which is all you need to prove medical necessity. We reminded them that O.C.G.A. Section 34-9-200(a) covers all *necessary* medical care, and that doesn’t stop at the state line. The State Board of Workers’ Compensation has a long history of approving this exact kind of travel for specialized care when it’s properly authorized.

Settlement/Verdict Outcome: Faced with perfect digital records and a clear legal argument, the insurer caved and agreed to reimburse David for all his mileage. Over the 15 months of his treatment, his reimbursement came to approximately $4,100. That’s a huge amount of money that helped him cover his expenses while he was recovering. The payments were made in installments as his treatment went on, not in one lump sum at the very end.

Timeline: Reimbursements were handled quarterly. The final payment was made within two weeks of his last authorized medical appointment, which was about 16 months after he was first injured.

The Importance of Careful Documentation

As you can see from these cases, the entire game comes down to your paperwork: documentation is everything. I don’t care if you use a little notebook, an Excel spreadsheet, or a fancy smartphone app that logs trips automatically. What matters is that you’re consistent and you capture the details. For every single medical trip connected to your work injury, you need to write down:

• The date of the appointment.
• The destination address (e.g., “123 Main Street, Atlanta, GA”).
• The name of the medical provider or facility (e.g., “Dr. Jones, Orthopedic Clinic”).
• The purpose of the visit (e.g., “physical therapy,” “follow-up exam,” “diagnostic MRI”).
• The total round-trip mileage.

Hang on to all your appointment cards and any receipts for parking or tolls. They can back up your log. It’s on you to prove these expenses. The law might be on your side, but the reality is that insurance adjusters won’t pay a cent without this level of detail, and they will use any gap in your records as an excuse to deny the claim.

And you have to watch the clock. In Georgia, you generally have **one year** from the date you drove to submit the reimbursement request. Miss that deadline, and the money for that specific trip is gone for good. This is why you don’t wait until your case is over to submit a giant stack of mileage. Send it in every month or every quarter. It keeps the reimbursements flowing and prevents you from accidentally missing a deadline.

Working through Insurer Objections

It’s pretty common for insurers to fight these mileage claims. They might come at you with objections like:

• Questioning the necessity of the travel (e.g., “Why didn’t you go to a closer doctor?”).
• Disputing the accuracy of the mileage you claimed.
• Claiming you submitted the request too late.
• Demanding unreasonable amounts of paperwork.

This is precisely when having a lawyer who does this every day makes all the difference. We know the specific rules from the State Board, which you can find on their site (sbwc.georgia.gov), and we know how to use them to shut down these common objections. For example, if an insurer claims a closer doctor was available, we can use medical records to justify the choice or show that the authorized treating physician made the referral. We’re fighting to make sure injured workers get every penny of the compensation they are owed under the law.

The money adds up faster than you think, especially in cases that drag on for a long time. For instance, if you drive 50 miles round trip twice a week for physical therapy, after six months that’s 2,600 miles. At the 2026 rate of $0.67/mile, that comes out to $1,742 in travel expenses you’re entitled to. That is real money for anyone, especially someone out of work or on a reduced paycheck. Forgetting to track and claim this money can blow a huge hole in your budget right when you can least afford it.

Look, after a work injury, your main job is to get better. But taking a few minutes to track your mileage is a practical step that has a direct effect on your family’s finances. It’s your right under Georgia law to get this money back, so don’t leave it on the table.