A Michigan Survey Suggests That Medical Marijuana Patients Are Decreasing Opioid Use to Treat Chronic Pain Two topics that have received a great deal of attention in recent years regarding the medical treatment of chronic pain have been the use and abuse of...
An employer need not pay the cost of supplying an injured employee with a spinal cord stimulator where both the employee’s testimony and that of the employer’s medical experts indicated the stimulator did not alleviate the pain associated with the employee’s primary...
The commission affirmed an award of permanent and total disability benefits to a 38-year old woman who she states after a carpal tunnel surgery she was unable to use her arms or legs. Law-Clark v McCleod , 2015 Mo WCLR Lexis 105 (Nov. 6, 2015). Shortly after...
Karen C. Yotis, Esq., a Feature Resident Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter , provides insights into workplace issues and the nuts and bolts of the workers’ comp world. How risky would it be if your mailroom employees used...
A Connecticut court affirmed the finding of the commissioner that various medications prescribed by the plaintiff’s treating physician for a head injury that occurred some 18 years earlier were palliative rather than curative, and thus were not reasonable...
Throughout the years, since the enactment of SB 899, all of the guidebooks have directed physicians and attorneys to focus on permanent objective medical conditions in order to determine whether that condition is ratable under the AMA Guides . Some people interpret...
Far too often we hear about pill mill doctors who are shut down or even arrested. Rachel Aviv’s article “ Prescription for Disaster ” ( The New Yorker , May 5, 2014) (subscription only) provides insight into the disturbing details of what led one such doctor, an...
I have come to realize that there are no easy solutions for the MSP problems we face in claims because the MSP is not the problem. Our MSP issues are collateral damage of more systemic societal problems we face as a nation. We clearly do not know how to treat chronic...
By Robert G. Rassp, Esq. © Copyright 2014. Excerpted from The Lawyer’s Guide to the AMA Guides and California Workers’ Compensation , 2014 Edition (LexisNexis). Reminder to Calif. Workers' Compensation Judges: You have access to this...
The bad news is that opioid abuse related to treating chronic pain remains a serious problem for every workers’ compensation system participant. The good news is that many workers’ compensation jurisdictions are increasing their efforts to reduce this situation...
By Robert G. Rassp. Esq. “Pain is relevant to mental impairment, since mental illness may change the perception of pain, for example, making it the object of an obsession or a somatic (bodily) expression of an emotional problem. However, it can be extremely...
Employers are scoring victories by using injured workers’ disclosures in their medical marijuana cards to help defeat claims for workers’ compensation benefits. Note: Trial level decisions, while not binding authority, often deal with cutting edge issues. As...