Can my employer or the adjuster talk to my doctor behind my back?

Yes. And they do. All the time. They didn’t use to be allowed to do that, but very very often they did anyway. Successful lobbying with Gov. McCrory and the political leaders in the legislature lead to a huge change in the law. Now employers can talk to your doctor but are not required to tell you immediately that the conversation occurred or what the details of the conversation were.

Is this necessarily bad? While we doubt that doctors are engaged in conniving with adjusters we don’t really understand what all the secrecy is about. The old law required the adjuster or employer to write to the doctor but to let the injured worker see the letter before it went out so that they could ask for anything to be added. That seemed really fair. Why did insurance adjusters and employers want this changed? It doesn’t seem to be an exaggeration to say they must have had a motive if they were going to lobby the government to change that requirement. So it’s fair to say that they specifically want to be able to communicate with the doctor.