The employer shall, subject to the choice of the employee as provided in § 28-33-8, promptly provide for an injured employee any reasonable medical, surgical, dental, optical, or other attendance or treatment, nurse and hospital service, medicines, crutches, and apparatus for such period as is necessary, in order to cure, rehabilitate or relieve the employee from the effects of his injury; provided, that no fee for major surgery shall be paid unless permission for it is first obtained from the workers' compensation court, the employer, or the insurance carrier involved, except where compliance with it may prove fatal or detrimental to the employee. Irrespective of the date of injury, the liability of the employer for hospital service rendered under this section to the injured employee shall be the cost to the hospital of rendering the service at the time the service is rendered. The director, after consultations with representatives of hospitals, employers, and insurance companies, shall establish administrative procedures regarding the furnishing and filing of data and the time and method of billing and may accept as representing the costs for both routine and special services to patients, costs as computed for the federal Medicare program. Each hospital licensed under chapter 16 of title 23 which renders services to injured employees under the Workers' Compensation Act, chapters 29 — 38 of this title, shall submit and certify to the director, in accordance with requirements of the administrative procedures established by him or her, its costs for those services. The employer shall also provide all medical, optical, dental, and surgical appliances and apparatus required to cure or relieve the employee from the effects of the injury, including but not being limited to the following: ambulance and nursing service, eyeglasses, dentures, braces and supports, artificial limbs, crutches, and other similar appliances; provided, that the employer shall not be liable to pay for or provide hearing aids or other amplification devices.
History of Section.
P.L. 1912, ch. 831, art. 6, § 5; P.L. 1915, ch. 1268, § 1; G.L. 1923, ch. 92, art. 6, § 5; G.L. 1938, ch. 300, art. 6, § 5; P.L. 1954, ch. 3297, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 28-32-5; P.L. 1985, ch. 365, § 6; P.L. 1986, ch. 507, § 7; P.L. 1990, ch. 332, art. 1, § 3; P.L. 2001, ch. 256, § 4; P.L. 2001, ch. 355, § 4; P.L. 2013, ch. 445, § 1; P.L. 2013, ch. 475, § 1.