One of the major changes in the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, which was enacted in the 1996 amendments, is the creation of the Impairment Rating Evaluation (IRE). Under this concept, once an injured worker receives 104 weeks of temporary total disability benefits, the workers’ comp insurance company has the right…
Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, an insurance carrier can stop paying benefits to an injured worker who is “incarcerated after a conviction.” The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania recently emphasized that there must be a conviction before workers’ compensation benefits can be suspended. In Rogele Inc.v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board…
An article in the New York Times, talking about how insurance company’s “Independent Medical Examiners” (IME) may not be acting truthfully, hit home to me. Though the article deals specifically with New York workers’ comp, their system is close enough to Pennsylvania’s that comparisons are valid. While I urge folks…
In Liveringhouse v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board, decided on March 19, 2009, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania reversed the decision of a Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ), which denied claimant’s Petition to Review. In this case, the injured worker filed her Petition to Review to add carpal tunnel syndrome to her…
According to a recent article in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, physical therapy, combined with anti-inflammatory medication, is the most effective treatment for low back pain caused by degenerative disc disease. As many injured workers know, one can have degenerative changes in their lumbar spine without…
Ordinarily in a Pennsylvania workers’ compensation case, litigation costs incurred by an injured worker (or his or her lawyer) are reimbursed by the PA workers’ comp insurance carrier if the injured worker was successful “in whole or in part.” This is a very important concept; if claimant attorneys cannot get…
Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, an injured worker is generally covered for all of the effects of the work injury. Things that would not have happened “but for” the work injury often can be included in the workers’ compensation case. Thus, typically, if an injured worker in PA has…
What happens when an injured worker in Pennsylvania is released by his or her doctor to return to work, without restriction, but the injured worker has no job waiting for him or her? Recently, the Commonwealth Court of PA answered this question and put a smile on the face of…
Section 204(a) of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act entitles workers’ comp insurance carriers to an offset if the injured worker receives unemployment compensation benefits, Social Security Retirement benefits, severance benefits or pension benefits. Most of these benefits, and their offsets, are easily calculated. However, when one gets into the area…
As you may recall, in a recent blog entry, we mentioned the case of PGW v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Amodei). This was the case where the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania stated, unequivocally, that credit against pension benefits in PA workers’ comp is to be done on the net amount…