The insurance carrier or employer has the right to designate a preferred medical provider. You are required to first seek medical treatment from the preferred provider, if one exists.
You are entitled to make one change of doctors. However, you need to notify the insurance carrier or selfinsured employer as soon as possible of the change.
A referral from your treating doctor to another doctor is not considered a change. Nor is a change from an emergency room doctor to a private doctor. Once doctor care has begun, emergency room visits are prohibited except in cases of: (1) doctor referral or (2) threat to life.