An injured worker in Pennsylvania generally has three years after the date of the injury to file a Claim Petition to seek workers’ compensation benefits for the injury. On the other hand, once an injury is accepted by the issuance of a Notice of Compensation Payable (NCP), and then wage loss benefits are suspended, the injured worker generally has 500 weeks, or three years from the date of last payment, whichever is later, to file for a reinstatement to such benefits. Where, then, does the issuance of a “medical-only” NCP leave an injured worker? This issue was recently addressed by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.
A “medical-only” NCP is a fairly recent document created under the PA Workers’ Compensation Act. This document allows the workers’ comp insurance carrier to accept responsibility for an injury, and to acknowledge the payment of medical treatment for such injury, but to deny any wage loss (“Disability”) has taken place. As discussed below, it is one of the most misused and abused documents in the entire Act.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania recently decided the case of Sloane v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia). Here, the injured worker was a nurse who suffered an injury to her right elbow, diagnosed as lateral epicondylitis, in 2004. This injury was accepted by NCP and wage loss benefits began. Eventually, she went back to work, on a light duty basis. In 2006, she suffered another work injury, this one to her right elbow and also to her right knee. This time a medical-only NCP was issued. She continued to work, still on light duty, until 2007, when she went out of work to have a total knee replacement performed on the right knee. She never was able to go back to work.