There is no physician-patient relationship between an independent medical examiner and a workers’ compensation claimant, held a Utah appellate court. In the absence of such a relationship, the physician did not owe the claimant the sort of duty owed by his or own...
Acknowledging that the statutory presumption of correctness afforded the opinion of an independent medical evaluator who had been selected from Tennessee's Medical Impairment Registry ("MIR") could be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence, an...
An Iowa workers’ compensation claimant was entitled to alternate medical care under Iowa Code § 85.27, in spite of his refusal to attend an independent medical examination (IME) proposed by the employer to determine if the additional treatment was related to the...
An independent medical examiner (IME) offered by the employer to opine on whether there was a sufficient causal connection between an employee’s lung condition and his employment need not be a board-certified pulmonologist, held a Florida appellate court...
In spite of language within Idaho's IME statute [Idaho Code § 72-433] that appears to require attendance at the independent medical examination (IME) session only during the injured employee's ”period of disability,” an employer who had ceased payment of...
Mont. Code Ann. § 39-71-605, which permits workers’ compensation insurers to obtain multiple medical examinations of a claimant, does not permit the State Fund (which had insured the risk and was administering the claim in the instant case) to act in contravention...
In a case not designated for publication, a Washington appellate court affirmed an employer’s suspension of workers’ compensation benefits to a claimant who refused to attend an IME schedule by the employer where the claimant requested treatment by a new physician...
Oakland – New data on the Independent Medical Review (IMR) process used to resolve California workers’ comp medical disputes show that IMR volume dipped for the first time ever in 2017, but the outcomes were unchanged as IMR physicians again upheld...
CALIFORNIA COMPENSATION CASES Vol. 83 No. 1 January 2018 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 Denied Judicial Review CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE ©...
A Mississippi appellate court reversed a decision of the state’s Workers' Compensation Commission that had sanctioned a claimant’s attorney for issuing a subpoena duces tecum to the employer’s medical expert in which the attorney sought information as to how...
Go v. Sutter Solano Medical Center is one of series of panel cases addressing the question of whether an employee can obtain TD and PD benefits based on medical treatment that was denied through UR and IMR. As the panel in Go points out, in the context of a UR...
Oakland – A new study on the California workers’ compensation independent medical review (IMR) process established by state lawmakers to resolve medical disputes finds that in the first half of this year, more than 91% of all utilization review (UR...
Oakland – The California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI), the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Coalition of Workers’ Compensation (CCWC) have filed a joint amicus brief in Stevens v. WCAB , the long-running court case that...
While a Kentucky physician must base his or her impairment rating regarding an injured worker on the AMA Guides (5th Ed.), the physician is not required to park his or her medical judgment at the examining room door. He or she may utilize clinical skill and judgment...
Does the WCAB’s interpretation of the Court of Appeal's language open up the possibility of successful appeals of IMR decisions in the future? In Stevens v. Outspoken Enterprises, Inc. , 2017 Cal. Wrk. Comp. P.D. LEXIS --, the WCAB, on remittitur from...