Pa. Top Court Requires Employer to Pay Injured Lawyer’s Costs for CBD Oil  

Employees who would rather use CBD oil than go through risky surgery or take pharmaceutical drugs with potential side effects may now be able to secure reimbursement for the oil. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently held that CBD oil can qualify as “medicines and supplies” under the workers’ compensation act. 

The case involved a workers’ compensation attorney who exacerbated his preexisting spinal injury while handling his large briefcase. Schmidt v. Schmidt, Kirifides and Rassias, PC, No. 32 MAP 2024 (Pa. 03/20/25).

The employer paid him workers’ compensation benefits for pain management treatment. He didn’t want to go through surgery given the risks and the long recovery time. But his doctor put him on oxycontin and oxycodone, and when that didn’t worker, offered to up the dose. The attorney, wisely deciding that more of his current prescriptions was likely to impact his ability to think, focus, and represent his clients, wanted an alternative.  

So, his doctor prescribed over the counter CBD oil. It worked. The employer, however, refused to reimburse him for his out-of-pocket costs on the basis that CBD oil is not a pharmaceutical drug and is not approved by the FDA.  

The lawyer challenged that decision, and the case wound its way up to the state’s high, but completely sober, supreme court. 

Pursuant to Section 306(f.1)(1)(i) of the Workers' Compensation Act, "[t]he employer shall provide payment in accordance with this section for reasonable surgical and medical services, services rendered by physicians or other health care providers, including an additional opinion when invasive surgery may be necessary, medicines and supplies, as and when needed."  

The court stated that it construed "medicines and supplies" to mean any item that is part of a health care provider's treatment plan for a work-related injury. It acknowledged the employer’s argument that CBD oil is not regulated and is extracted from hemp and marijuana that the FDA has determined is unsafe and cannot be sold or marketed for any purpose. The employer also argued that CBD is not always free of THC and thus is potentially harmful. 

“In making these arguments, Employer focuses its attention, not on the plain and unambiguous language of the statute in question … but on CBD oil's alleged shortcomings,” the court wrote.  

Further, the court stated, the WCA does not require "medicines and supplies" to be regulated by the FDA. Nor was the attorney required to show that the oil is free of serious side effects. 

While the employer might have made its case by showing that the CBD oil was illegally purchased, that was not the case here. In Pennsylvania, CBD oil may be lawfully sold over the counter.  

The court held that CBD oil is not excluded from the category of "medicines and supplies" under the WCA.  

“Instead, … any item that is part of a health care provider's treatment plan falls within the purview of the broad-encompassing phrase "medicines and supplies" as provided in Section 306(f.1)(1)(i) of the WCA,” the court wrote. 

It affirmed a lower court’s order requiring the employer to reimburse the attorney for the cost of the oil.  

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