LexisNexis has selected some recently issued noteworthy IMR decisions that illustrate the criteria that must be met to obtain authorization for a variety of different medical treatment modalities. LexisNexis...
By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board Appeals Board panel decisions that rescind a WCJ’s decision and...
Board Panel Opinion Provides a Succinct Explanation By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board The process for...
CALIFORNIA COMPENSATION CASES Vol. 89, No. 4 April 2024 A Report of En Banc and Significant Panel Decisions of the WCAB and Selected Court Opinions of Related Interest, With a Digest of WCAB Decisions...
By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board Several months ago, an article in LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation...
Where an injured worker’s medical expert opined that utilizing Advisories 2003–10 and 2003–10b—and not the AMA Guides—the worker, who underwent four surgeries, including a spinal fusion and a laminectomy, had a 20 percent impairment rating, that rating did not comply with Tex. Lab. Code Ann. § 408.124(b) and was invalid. Because the trial court was left with no valid rating, remand was required. The Court also stressed that in considering whether an impairment rating submitted to the Texas Department of Insurance Division of Workers’ Compensation was valid, a reviewing court was not making a determination of impairment. Instead, the court was deciding a purely legal question: whether the proffered rating was made in accordance with statutory requirements. Here the rating had not utilized the AMA Guides and, therefore, the Division could not consider it.
Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).
LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.
See American Zurich Ins. Co. v. Samudio, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 713 (Jan. 26, 2017)
See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 80.07.
Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law