As long time readers of our blog know, Utilization Review is the process either party can use to address whether medical treatment for a PA work injury is reasonable or necessary. Though the Courts in Pennsylvania have made it clear that treatment can be reasonable and necessary while merely “palliative”…
Previously, we discussed the case of Fitzgibbons v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (City of Philadelphia). In this decision, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania held that a Petition to Review, to expand a description of injury, must be filed within three years of the last payment of workers’ compensation benefits. This…
As attorneys who represent folks who have been hurt at work in Pennsylvania, we get many questions beyond legal ones dealing with PA workers’ comp issues. The average injured worker has led a fairly healthy life, and this change is sudden and understandably scary. Many injured workers have medical questions,…
We have discussed Section 204(a), part of the 1996 amendments to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, previously on our blog. This Section gives the workers’ comp insurance carrier a right to a credit, or offset, on other types of benefits, including Social Security Retirement, unemployment compensation, severance and pension benefits.…
Whether an injured worker in PA has “voluntarily withdrawn from the labor market” has been a frequent topic on this blog. There has been a great deal of litigation on this issue in the appellate courts over the past several years. We are seeing that the details and facts in…
On many occasions, we have explored the evolution of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act as it pertains to whether an injured worker has “voluntarily left the labor market.” Typically, we see this situation when the injured worker has filed for a retirement pension, or given some other indicia of “retirement.”…
Generally speaking, the goal is to return an injured worker in Pennsylvania to gainful employment. Along those lines, under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, when an injured worker in PA is not able to keep working, due to the effects of the work injury, workers’ comp benefits should be reinstated.…
Many changes to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, much to the detriment of the injured worker, took place in the sweeping 1996 amendments to the Act. One of the more substantial changes was the amendment to Section 204(a), allowing PA workers’ comp insurance carriers to enjoy an offset, or credit,…
Under PA workers’ comp, wage loss benefits are stopped (suspended) when an injured worker returns to work at no loss in wages (medical treatment continues, regardless of wage loss, however). What if the injured worker (“claimant”) voluntarily quits a job? Can he or she get reinstated to workers’ compensation benefits…
Before recent changes in PA Workers’ Compensation law, an insurance carrier could “accept” a claim using a Notice of Denial (NCD). This left the status of the work injury in doubt, so, in 2011, the PA Bureau of Workers’ Compensation redesigned the NCD form to no longer allow such an…