Typically, in Pennsylvania, a workers’ compensation claim has two important time constraints – a period within which the injured worker must provide notice of the work injury to his or her employer (within 120 days), and a period within which a Claim Petition must be filed with the Bureau of…
When a violation of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act takes place, the proper avenue of relief is to file a Petition for Penalties. This Petition allows a Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) to assess a penalty of up to 50% of the benefits at issue. Typically, this is filed by an…
According to the PhillyBurbs.com, Rothman Institute, a highly respected medical practice based in Philadelphia, PA, has now opened a private hospital in Bensalem, PA. The hospital, the first opened by Rothman Institute, will handle only orthopedic conditions. There are 24 beds in the facility, which also contains medical offices. More…
The Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act allows a workers’ comp insurance carrier to obtain an “Independent Medical Examination” (IME) [Which, of course, is usually anything but “Independent”] at “reasonable” intervals. If an injured worker refuses to attend an ordered IME, a Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) can suspend the injured worker’s benefits…
Ordinarily, when an employee is commuting to, or from, work in Pennsylvania, he or she is not in the course of employment. This is known in the PA workers’ comp community as “The Going and Coming Rule.” Thus, if the employee is injured while commuting, usually the injured worker is…
When an injured worker in Pennsylvania is physically unable to perform his or her time-of-injury job, due to a work injury, the burden falls to the employer to prove the existence of a job that is “available” to the injured worker. For a job to be “available,” it must be…
In PA, an injured employee is entitled to workers’ compensation benefits only when the injury takes place while the employee is in the scope and course of his or her employment. Often, this is something obvious, as when the employee is actually injured while on the employer’s premises, performing the…
When an aggrieved party wants to appeal a decision of a Workers’ Compensation Judge in PA, the first step is to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (WCAB). Until recently, the WCAB was comprised of a total of 15 commissioners, who would travel throughout the State of Pennsylvania, holding oral…
In the PA Workers’ Compensation system, we often see the workers’ comp insurance company doctors employ a fanatical reliance on “objective” diagnostic studies, at least when the results are negative. These doctors who perform Independent Medical Examinations (IMEs)[More accurately known as Defense Medical Examinations (DMEs)] use a negative study to…
In a case that has been working its way through the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation system for some time now, the Supreme Court has accepted appeal in the matter of Diehl v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (WCAB). As was discussed in a previous blog entry, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania concluded…