The mileage rate that workers’ comp claims administrators pay injured workers for travel related to medical treatment or evaluation of their injuries will increase from 58.5¢ per mile to 62.5¢ per mile for travel on or after July 1, 2022, regardless of the date of injury. The old rate of 58.5¢ per mile still applies for travel from January 1 through June 30, 2022.
California Labor Code §4600(e)(2), in conjunction with Government Code §19820 and DPA regulations, requires claims administrators to reimburse injured workers for medical mileage at the rate adopted by the Department of Personnel Administration (DPA) for non-represented (excluded) state employees, which is tied to the IRS published mileage rate.
The IRS normally adjusts the standard mileage rate each fall for the next calendar year based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile, but IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig just announced that in recognition of recent gasoline price increases, the IRS made this special adjustment for the final months of 2022.
Therefore, for miles driven from July 1 through December 31, 2022, the standard mileage rate will increase to 62.5¢ per business mile driven. The IRS announcement is available in the agency’s online newsroom https://www.irs.gov/newsroom.
CWCI has alerted the DWC of the increase, so as soon as the Division receives confirmation from the DPA it will likely post a Newsline regarding the new mileage rate for travel on or after July 1, 2022 on its website, http://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/dwc_newsline.html. In the meantime, claims organizations may want to alert their claims staff and programmers of the pending change.
Mid-year mileage rate increases are rare (the last one was in 2011), but there have been multiple mileage rate changes with January effective dates over the past decade, so the DWC has downloadable mileage-expense forms that show the applicable rates based on the travel date posted under “Medical Forms” on the Forms page of its website www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/forms.html.