Is Employer Responsible to Pay Penalties for Delays In His Insurance Carrier's Medical Services Payment ?

In Twyman v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation), 720 A.2d 780 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1998), the Court focused on the language in what is now Section 306(f.1) that an "employer shall provide payment [for medical services] as and when needed." 77 P.S. 531(1)(i); see also Twyman, 720 A.2d at 786. As noted in the Twyman decision and in the Concurring and Dissenting Opinion in this case, the specific section number of the Act and the particulars of the language have changed since Twyman, but the general portion of the language quoted above was applicable at the time of Twyman and remains in the present section. Twyman, 720 A.2d at 784 n.7. In Twyman, the Court concluded that, based on this language, employer was responsible for payment of penalties arising from delays in the employer's insurance carrier's payment of employee's medical services. Id. at 786-87.