By:
Attorney Peter J. Classetti
Since
mid-1996, Pennsylvania has permitted workers compensation
insurance companies and self-insured employers to limit the duration of
wage loss benefits available to disabled workers by permitting special
medical examination, called Impairment Rating Exams, to achieve a reduction
in a worker’s status from total to partially disabled.
This is how
it worked. The injured worker would be scheduled for an examination
with a physician deemed eligible for this purpose by the state
and the exam would cover only the acknowledged work- related injuries,
applying measurements and techniques as prescribed in the American Medical
Association's Guide to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment.
The examiner would
then complete a prescribed form and render a determination as to the
worker’s percentage of whole body impairment.
Pennsylvania
had the highest impairment ceiling in the United States, which simply
meant that unless a worker were determined to be at least
50% impaired as a whole person, he/she could no longer remain on total
disability but would become legally partially disabled.
The impact of
this part of the law was very significant.
While the new
disability status of partially disabled did not allow any actual
reduction in the weekly amount of benefits, it did place a limit of
an additional 500 weeks of wage loss benefits.
Over the
ensuing 20 years or so, many workers and their counsel raised issues with
this part of the Pennsylvania Law because many of us
believed the Pennsylvania legislature had illegally granted its
lawmaking power to that of a private organization, the AMA. Fortunately, the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed and in the case of PROTZ V.
W.C.A.B. (Derry Area School District), it struck down the entire
Impairment rating process as unconstitutional.
Now,
Pennsylvania is back where it was prior to the 1996 changes. Now,
technically, an injured worker can remain on Workers Compensation wage
loss benefits indefinitely. This is surely very good news for
those injured in the future.
What
remains unresolved in Pennsylvania is whether the Court's opinion in the
Derry case applies fully retroactively to invalidate ALL
Impairment rating evaluations that have not resulted in full releases of
the cases.
This issue
of retro-activity is now before the Pennsylvania
Commonwealth Court, another appeals court, for determination.
In the
immediate present, I am filing petitions on ALL cases where I
believe the Derry case may well reverse my client' partial disability
status, thus allowing them to, again, be eligible for potentially
indefinite workers compensation wage loss benefits.
If you
are an injured worker eligible for benefits under Pennsylvania law, whose
benefits have been reduced in duration by a now illegal
impairment rating examination, I recommend that you consult an
experienced and competent Pennsylvania workers
compensation attorney.
Learn more
about our workers compensation cases and department.