California Workers' Comp Mileage Reimbursement

Travel to treatment for a work injury pays 76 cents per mile for trips on or after July 1, 2026, and 72.5 cents per mile for trips from January 1 to June 30, 2026. The claims administrator, which is the insurer adjusting the claim, owes that figure for the day you travelled, whatever the date of the injury. Claim it on the Division of Workers' Compensation mileage form for the period, with parking, bridge tolls and public transport in their own boxes.

• The rate changes on January 1, and in 2026 it moved again on July 1, so one claim can carry two figures. A trip in 2025 pays 70 cents per mile.
• The money comes from the claims administrator rather than from your employer's payroll, and the form goes to the insurance company, not to the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board.
• You claim parking, bridge tolls, public transport and other travel costs on the same form, and the per-mile figure covers the driving alone.
• The same rate pays travel to an examination the claim requires, as well as travel to treatment.
• Each period's form prints that period's rate, so a June visit belongs on the January form even when you send it in August.

Figures checked on November 3, 2026 against the Division of Workers' Compensation mileage rates and the announcement beside each figure. You claim parking, bridge tolls and public transport on the same form, and the per-mile figure does not cover them. A period that is no longer listed is still claimable, and the Division's form list holds the older sheets.

The form is a single sheet in English and Spanish. It prints the rate for its own period and works out the total, so the figure on the paper is the figure the claim pays.

Fill one line for each visit, sign the form, and send the original to the insurance company. Keep a copy for your own file.

1. 1

   Take the form for the date you travelled

   The Division of Workers' Compensation publishes a separate form for each rate period, and each one prints the figure it pays. The newest form is not the right one for an older trip.

2. 2

   Write one line for each visit

   Each line names its own day and route, the round-trip miles, and the parking and tolls you paid. A visit priced at one rate can sit beside a visit priced at another.

3. 3

   Attach the receipts

   Parking, bridge tolls and public transport need a receipt. The mileage does not, because the form totals your miles at the printed rate.

4. 4

   Sign it, send the original to the insurance company, and keep a copy

   The form says not to send the original or a copy to the local Workers' Compensation Appeals Board or to the information and assistance officer. The insurer's address is the one on your claim paperwork.

5. 5

   Follow up after 60 days

   If your travel costs are not paid within 60 days, the form says to contact the information and assistance officer at the Division of Workers' Compensation district office nearest you.

The form has a box for parking and a box for tolls, and it totals each one separately before adding them to the mileage.

The per-mile figure pays for the driving. Everything else you spend getting to treatment goes in its own box on the same form, and the Division lists the costs it covers.

Reasonable travel means the trip to a doctor, a hospital, a therapist or a pharmacy for the injury. A detour for something unrelated to the treatment is not part of the claim.

• Parking at a clinic or hospital, which the form totals in a box of its own.
• Bridge tolls, which you claim the same way.
• Public transport fares, listed on the form as a travel cost, for a visit you made by bus or train instead of driving.
• Other travel-related costs, which the form leaves open at the end of its list.

A rate change in the middle of treatment does not change the price of the visits you already made. Each trip pays the figure in force on its own date, so a claim that spans June and July carries both.

Two visits to the same clinic, one in June at 72.5 cents per mile and one in July at 76 cents per mile, show how the arithmetic splits. Parking and the toll sit beside the mileage rather than inside it.

Each visit is priced at the rate in force on its own date. Parking and the toll are added after the mileage because the form prints them in separate boxes.

Travel to a medical-legal examination is paid at the same rate as travel to treatment, and the Division's announcements name both kinds of travel.

Section 4600(e)(1) covers an examination the claim sends you to. It applies when the employer, the insurer, the Division's Administrative Director, the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board or a workers' compensation judge asks you to attend. The reasonable cost of getting there is a benefit.

• A trip to a qualified medical evaluator or an agreed medical evaluator pays the same rate as a trip to treatment.
• The same provision also adds a day of temporary disability pay for each day of wages you lose attending the examination. That payment is separate from the travel.

A private employer's duty to cover the cost of business driving is a different rule with a different payer. Labor Code 2802 makes an employer reimburse the expenses the job causes, such as a customer visit or a delivery, and none of it is a workers' compensation benefit.

The two are easy to confuse because both follow the federal figure. The claims administrator pays treatment travel, and the employer pays business driving. If your employer has not paid for miles you drove for work, the claim is under Labor Code 2802 and not on this form.

For 2026 the IRS allows 20.5 cents a mile for medical travel from January 1 to June 30 and 23.5 cents a mile from July 1. That figure is a deduction, not a payment. It reduces taxable income on Schedule A when you itemize, and only medical costs above 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income count towards it.

A trip the claims administrator paid for cannot be deducted as well, and the workers' compensation rate is not a deduction figure. Put the cents the form prints on the form, and leave the medical deduction out of it.

Common questions

• California Labor Code section 4600

  The treatment an employer owes an injured worker, and the reasonable transportation a requested medical-legal examination adds.

• Division of Workers' Compensation: mileage rates

  The published rate by start date, with the expenses of transportation it covers: mileage, parking and bridge tolls.

• DWC Newsline 2026-60

  Announced on July 23, 2026. The 76-cent figure is paid for travel on or after July 1, 2026, whatever the date of injury.

• DWC Newsline 2026-02

  Announced on January 5, 2026. The 72.5-cent figure is paid for travel on or after January 1, 2026, whatever the date of injury.

• DWC Newsline 2024-112

  Announced on December 20, 2024. The 70-cent figure is paid for travel on or after January 1, 2025, whatever the date of injury.

• Division of Workers' Compensation: medical mileage forms

  A form for each rate period in English and Spanish, including periods that have closed. Ask a district office when a form is missing.