May 15, 2009
Did you know...?
Workers Comp Impairment Ratings are more accurate and consistent when based on Objective findings
The American Medical Association Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (the Guides) are widely used in workers’ compensation, automobile casualty and personal injury cases to quantify permanent losses associated with injury or illness… or more simply put to determine when, and how much, a person's medical condition is a disabling condition.
A couple key concepts - impairment is not the same as disability. Impairment is the result of the medical condition - what physical impact occurred. Disability is somewhat more subjective, as it addresses what that person can do. For example, Steven Hawking (the brilliant physicist) is completely impaired due to ALS. He is also a prolific author and practices his craft every day. Thus he is 'impaired' but not 'disabled'.
A national (2006) study of 2,100 cases referred for impairment rating review (using the Fifth Edition Guides) found 80 percent of all ratings erroneous, with 89 percent of the erroneous ratings being higher than was appropriate. That is, the subsequent review showed the person was not as disabled as the original impairment rating asserted. Of Fifth Edition whole person erroneous ratings the rating by the original rating physician averaged 15.5 percent whole person permanent impairment, and upon re-rating by physicians expert in impairment rating the corrected rating averaged 5.6 percent whole person permanent impairment. Depending on type of case and jurisdiction, these errors typically reflect changes in the valuation of a case between several thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars per case. It is important to note that there will be some variation in ratings when performed by different types of physicians and for different diagnoses and therefore it is important for impairment ratings to be based on objective data and assessed by skilled independent evaluators. Ratings based on objective findings are fair for both the employer and the employee. All impairment ratings must be critically reviewed.
The Sixth Edition of the Guides published in late 2007 was developed in an effort to add consistency across the ratings, a response to criticism of past editions. The new Guides define a new standard -- the most current guidelines for correct impairment evaluation -- is more diagnosis based, using evidence to substantiate the diagnosis, and provides rating percentages that factor in clinical and functional history as well as an exam of the patient. It also factors in new, more current medical research and clinical studies.
The Guides define procedures for obtaining and analyzing clinical data, which are then applied to criteria to provide an impairment rating.
OHS-COMPCARE utilizes only Physicians who are certified Independent Medical Examiners. Ratings are based solely on OBJECTIVE findings. To learn how OHS-COMPCARE can help with your IME needs please contact our Client Services Team at 816-561-2105 (option 1).
*Please feel free to forward this information to any member of management in your company who would benefit from it.*
To view the Tip of the Week in Spanish please visit our Tip of the Week library at http://www.ohscompcare.com/totw/. Please allow a few days for the current Tip of the Week to be translated and placed in to the library.
To learn more about
services OHS-COMPCARE has to offer, contact our Client Services
Team at (816) 561-2105 option 1 or by e-mail at customerservice@ohscompcare.com. You can also visit us at www.ohscompcare.com.
Why choose us? Because OHS-COMPCARE has a physician on call 24/7/365 days a year to respond to our client's needs.
OHS-COMPCARE has seven (7) area clinical facilities:
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Independence Clinical Facility |
Johnson County Clinical Facility |
St. Joseph Clinical Facility |
Grandview Clinical Facility |
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19000 E. Eastland Center Crt, St. 200 |
10415 Lackman Road |
904 Edmond Street |
13830 S Us Highway 71 |
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Independence, MO 64055 |
Lenexa, KS 66219 |
St. Joseph, MO 64501 |
Grandview, MO 64030 |
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816-478-9299 |
913-495-9905 |
816-233-7702 |
816-761-4664 |
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After Hours Available |
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KCMO/Broadway Clinical Facility |
KCMO/Front Street Clinical Facility |
Wyandotte County Clinical Facility |
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1650 Broadway |
6501 East Commerce, Suite 110 |
1333 Meadowlark Lane, Suite 200 |
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Kansas City, MO 64108 |
Kansas City, MO 64120 |
Kansas City, KS 66102 |
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816-842-2020 |
816-483-5550 |
913-596-2774 |
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