Idaho Law Blog
We have now had some time to reflect on the adoption of the Sixth Edition of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. There were criticisms to the Fifth Edition in that it awarded too much impairment that was actually disability. One of the biggest changes from the Fifth to the Sixth Edition was a greater emphasis on the functional assessment as a component of the impairment rating. The doctors working on the Sixth Edition also tried to remove as much ambiguity as possible to improve the inter-examiner consistency. We have seen the biggest adjustments made in the spinal chapter of the Sixth Edition. These impairment ratings are now much lower. The writers of the Sixth Edition did this by assigning lower numbers to each of the classifications, which are driven by the severity of the injury. The writers of the Sixth Edition further attempted to drive down the impairment ratings by developing a grid system, which then subtracted or added to the overall impairment.
This development is of major concern to many Idaho Workers’ Compensation claimants. Most of the more serious Idaho Workers’ Compensation claims arise out of low back injuries. With the lowering of the impairment ratings, injured Idaho workers now receive less in the form of impairment rating monies because their impairment ratings are now lower. The way to work around this problem is to make sure that the disability portion of your Idaho Workers’ Compensation claim is developed by having evidence of your restrictions and documentation of your wage loss. These are the two largest non-medical factors that drive your disability claim. If your Idaho Workers’ Compensation claim is properly developed by an experienced Idaho Workers’ Compensation lawyer, you can make up for these lower impairment ratings by having a stronger disability claim from the non-medical factors in your Idaho Workers’ Compensation case.