SUAREZ, KENIA LORENZO v. WCSC TENNESSEE, LLC

2025 TN WC 81
CourtTennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims
DecidedNovember 24, 2025
Docket2024-50-2258
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 TN WC 81 (SUAREZ, KENIA LORENZO v. WCSC TENNESSEE, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
SUAREZ, KENIA LORENZO v. WCSC TENNESSEE, LLC, 2025 TN WC 81 (Tenn. Super. Ct. 2025).

Opinion

FILED Nov 24, 2025 09:06 AM(CT) TENNESSEE COURT OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION CLAIMS

TENNESSEE BUREAU OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CLAIMS IN THE COURT OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CLAIMS AT MURFREESBORO

KENIA LORENZO SUAREZ, ) Docket No. 2024-50-2258 Employee, ) v. ) ) WCSC TENNESSEE, LLC, ) State File No. 63547-2023 Employer, ) And ) ) SFM MUT. INS. CO., ) Judge Dale Tipps Carrier. )

EXPEDITED HEARING ORDER DENYING BENEFITS

The Court held an Expedited Hearing on November 13, 2025. The issue was whether Ms. Suarez is likely to prove at trial entitlement to additional temporary disability and medical benefits. For the reasons below, the Court holds that, while Ms. Suarez is likely to prevail at a hearing on the merits that she is entitled to continuing medical treatment, she is not likely to prove entitlement to additional temporary disability benefits or the specific requested medical treatment.

History of Claim

This is the second expedited hearing in this case. Following the first hearing, the Court granted part of Ms. Suarez’s temporary disability benefits request and ordered WCSC to authorize physical therapy.

Ms. Suarez was working as a home health provider for WCSC when she fell and injured herself at a client’s home on August 7, 2023. WCSC accepted the claim and furnished medical treatment at a clinic until she received an orthopedic referral.

Ms. Suarez then selected orthopedist Dr. Erion Qamirani from a panel. He noted that her MRI showed degenerative changes without stenosis, and he assessed lumbar sprain and radiculopathy. He saw “no surgical indications” and referred her to Dr. Kenneth Sykes, a pain medicine specialist, for a right L4-5 epidural steroid injection. Before that referral appointment took place, a physician assistant in Dr. Qamirani’s office wrote a prescription for gabapentin. Ms. Suarez testified that she took only one dose because it caused a severe reaction, including facial numbness.

Dr. Sykes suggested an epidural injection without the steroid. Ms. Suarez said she did not want to proceed with any treatment until she was seen for her neck complaints.

When Ms. Suarez returned in May, Dr. Sykes discussed a nerve block but noted she wanted a neurologist to evaluate the symptoms she experienced after taking gabapentin. Ms. Suarez also continued to complain of cervical pain, and Dr. Sykes explained that the carrier would have to approve an examination of her neck. He referred her to a neurologist.

Ms. Suarez selected Dr. Richard Rubinowicz from a neurologist panel and saw him once. She reported light sensitivity and “right sided facial numbness and pressure discomfort.” After examining her, the doctor wrote, “I do not feel the gabapentin produced the symptoms she is reporting. . . . No additional intervention with neurology is required[,] and she can be discharged.”

Drs. Rubinowicz and Qamirani both completed C-30A forms with the opinion that Ms. Suarez reached maximum medical improvement on July 22, 2024.

On August 12, Dr. Sykes assessed lumbar sprain and lumbar radiculopathy. He no longer felt Ms. Suarez was a candidate for nerve blocks or injections. Instead, he recommended more physical therapy.

Dissatisfied with Dr. Rubinowicz’s conclusions, Ms. Suarez saw neurologist Dr. Norman McNulty with complaints of pain and paresthesia in her face.1 He assessed right trigeminal neuralgia and prescribed oxcarbazepine but noted that she was “hesitant to try any medication as she believes that gabapentin caused these symptoms.”

After the first Expedited Hearing, WCSC authorized the physical therapy prescribed by Dr. Sykes, which Ms. Suarez completed. He then prescribed more therapy for both lumbar and cervical radiculopathy, restricted her from driving, and limited her to sedentary work.

When Ms. Suarez returned on July 28, Dr. Sykes ordered a cervical MRI to rule out cord compression. He also renewed her temporary restrictions and instructed her to follow up with him after the MRI. Dr. Sykes said Ms. Suarez “reports she is seeing an orthopedist

1 Dr. McNulty’s records were excluded from the first expedited hearing because they were filed too late.

They were made an exhibit during the second hearing. for further evaluation and treatment for her lumbar spine.” She did not return to Dr. Sykes until November 10.

The reason for this delay is somewhat convoluted. After Ms. Suarez told Dr. Sykes about her unauthorized treatment, WCSC scheduled a return appointment with Dr. Qamirani and resumed temporary disability payments. However, Dr. Qamiriani declined to see her again. So, WCSC offered several orthopedic panels only to have the chosen doctor refuse Ms. Suarez as a patient. At the time of the hearing, no orthopedist had seen her.

Nonetheless, Ms. Suarez was eventually scheduled to return to Dr. Sykes after a few months but rescheduled in an unsuccessful attempt to see an out-of-state orthopedist on her own. As a result, WCSC suspended her temporary disability benefits for noncompliance. She eventually saw Dr. Sykes a few days before the hearing, but records from that visit were not yet available.

As in the first hearing, Ms. Suarez testified that since taking the gabapentin she has experienced burning or numbness on one side of her face. She feels “fuzzy,” can’t sleep, and no longer drives. Ms. Suarez has been unable to work.

On cross-examination, Ms. Suarez admitted that WCSC has not denied any treatment ordered by an authorized physician. She also confirmed that it offered a return to Dr. Rubinowitz, but she does not want to see him.

Ms. Suarez argued that she needs additional treatment so she can return to work. She asked to be allowed to treat with out-of-state orthopedists because of the problems finding a doctor willing to see her, and she sought reimbursement for unauthorized medical expenses. Ms. Suarez also requested temporary total disability benefits from October 2024 until WCSC resumed her payments on July 28 2025.2 Finally, she contended she is entitled to temporary total disability benefits from the time they were suspended in October 2025 through the present.

WCSC argued that it furnished all ordered treatment. In spite of the problems getting a doctor to accept Ms. Suarez as a patient, it continues to offer valid panels for treatment. It also contended that Ms. Suarez’s requests for an orthopedist outside of the relevant community and for medical expense reimbursement are not authorized by the statute. Regarding temporary disability benefits, WCSC insisted that they have been paid consistent with her light duty work period and her medical restrictions.

2 She admitted during the hearing that she worked light duty both in person and online from approximately

October 2024 through February 2025. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law

Ms. Suarez must show she is likely to prevail at a hearing on the merits. Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-6-239(c)(6) (2024); McCord v. Advantage Human Resourcing, 2015 TN Wrk. Comp. App. Bd. LEXIS 6, at *7-8, 9 (Mar. 27, 2015).

Turning first to Ms. Suarez’s request for additional medical benefits, under Tennessee Code Annotated section 50-6-204(a)(1)(A), WCSC must provide medical treatment made reasonably necessary by the work accident. To accomplish this, it must offer a panel of three physicians. Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-6-204(a)(3)(A)(i).

WCSC met these requirements, as Ms. Suarez chose both Drs. Qamirani and Rubinowicz from their respective panels. Further, under section 50-6-204(a)(3)(A)(ii), WCSC properly authorized and furnished treatment with Dr. Sykes, as he was a direct referral from Dr.

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2025 TN WC 81, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/suarez-kenia-lorenzo-v-wcsc-tennessee-llc-tennworkcompcl-2025.