The claimant sought a special award in relation to the cost for medical cannabis. The insurer had requested information from the claimant regarding the costs for the medical cannabis in order to consider payment. The claimant responded, but only provided some of the information requested by the insurer. Adjudicator Parish noted the insurer should have identified all the specific required information in order to obtain funding for the cannabis in its initial request for information in the OCF-9 of November 2, 2018. Adjudicator Parish further indicated that although, the insurer subsequently sent a letter dated December 17, 2018 that reiterated the same information that was required, it did not equate to the insurer unreasonably withholding or delaying payments to the claimant. On December 21, 2018, the insurer sent a new letter that clearly outlined the specific information that was required for payment of the costs of the cannabis. Since the insurer paid the costs within 30 days of receiving the requested information, Adjudicator Parish found that there was no delay in the chronology of events in the insurer’s response for the claim.
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