"Who decides what kind of doctor evaluates me?"

Why specialty decides so much

Different specialties rate the same body part differently, because they use different methods and see different things.

An orthopedist and a neurologist looking at the same low back will not necessarily produce the same impairment. One may rate under the DRE method, the other under range of motion. One may find a neurological deficit the other does not test for.

A pain medicine specialist, a physiatrist, and a psychiatrist each frame a chronic pain case in a way the others would not.

And a specialty that does not match the injury produces a weak report — which hurts whichever side needed the finding.

How it actually gets set

A panel request identifies the specialty being requested. The other party can object, and where the parties disagree, the dispute over specialty is resolved administratively rather than by whoever asked first.

What this means practically: the specialty is negotiable and contestable, but only if someone raises it in time. Unrepresented workers almost never do, because nothing in the process says this is a decision.

What to think about before the panel is requested

Which body parts and systems are actually involved? A shoulder plus a neck plus numbness in the hand is not purely orthopedic.

Is there a psychiatric component? If so, it usually needs its own evaluation, and whether it is ratable depends on § 4660.1(c) and its violent-act and catastrophic-injury exceptions. How that works.

Is there internal or occupational disease involvement? Chemical exposure, hearing loss, and cardiac and pulmonary conditions all need specialists who evaluate them routinely.

And is an AME possible instead? If you are represented, an agreed medical evaluator is chosen jointly and can be a better route entirely. What an AME is.