Colorado: Court Refuses to Give Presumptive Deference to DIME Physician's Opinion

Acknowledging that under Colo. Rev. Stat § 8-42-107(8)(b)(III), a division-sponsored independent medical examination (“DIME”) physician’s opinions concerning MMI and impairment are afforded presumptive weight, a state appellate court held the presumption did not apply to the DIME physician’s opinions as to causation, particularly where, as in the instant case, the DIME physician stated no actual opinion of his or her own, but merely deferred to the opinion of others. Claimant had suffered a severe head injury and, more than a year later developed symptoms consistent with narcolepsy. The DIME physician’s statements as to the cause of the narcolepsy were not controlling.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

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See Yeutter v. Industrial Claim Appeals Office (CBW Automation, Inc.), 2019 COA 53, 2019 Colo. App. LEXIS 549 (Apr. 11, 2019)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 94.02.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see