Paula Kay Brunner, Respondent, vs. Post Consumer Brands and Gallagher Bassett Services, Inc., Relators

Summary

The court held that an employee may bring a direct claim for medical expenses paid by a health insurer before a workers’ compensation determination, and that the Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals erred in refusing to extinguish the insurer’s intervenor interest when it failed to intervene timely. The decision affirms the employee’s substantive right to recover those expenses while reversing the WCCA on the intervenor issue.