Once an injured worker in PA establishes a right to workers’ compensation benefits, such benefits can only be stopped by the workers’ comp insurance carrier under certain circumstances. Two of the most common involve litigation before a Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) – proving to the WCJ that the injured worker…
When an injured worker in PA gets medical treatment for his or her work injury, and a bill is submitted to the workers’ compensation insurance carrier, the insurance carrier has three choices. They can pay the bill (within 30 days), initiate the Utilization Review process (to challenge whether the treatment…
As far back as 2008, our blog reported on a marked increase in the number of total knee replacements that were being performed. This trend seems to have been continuing, and, perhaps, not for the best. According to a recent article in The Intelligencer, a rather high number of patients…
In litigating a workers’ compensation case in Pennsylvania, we fight about many aspects of a case. Certainly, we have had disputes over when an injured worker was actually “disabled” from his or her job. As highlighted in a recent decision by the Commonwealth Court of PA, though, sometimes the exact…
When the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania decides a case in the PA workers’ compensation arena, we often get some insight into an aspect of the law, or an interpretation of a section of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act (Act). Rarely do we see a case address two areas of significance. …
Okay, so you get injured at work. You get treatment with a doctor, maybe have a course of physical therapy, then you start to feel a little better. You are not all better yet, and you cannot go back to your regular job, but maybe you could do some kind…
On our blog, and our website, we talk of how to help the injured worker, both through legal rights under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, and through news and developments in the medical field. But, maybe the most helpful thing is to avoid the work injury in the first place.…
Though the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act does not have a cost-of-living increase, as seen with Social Security Disability benefits, the maximum workers’ compensation rate does increase every year. This, of course, does not impact existing injuries, only those that take place in this calendar year. The PA Bureau of Workers’…
Anyone who follows our blog, or the Pennsylvania workers’ compensation system, knows that one of the fastest changing areas these days is that of Impairment Rating Evaluations (IREs). To keep pace with these changes, and continue our goal of educating the injured worker throughout PA, we have updated the IRE…
As we have noted in the past, generally, the Pennsylvania Bureau of Workers’ Compensation does not publicize when Workers’ Compensation Judges (WCJs) move from county to county, or even when they change into a different role in the Bureau. So, it falls to us to share with injured workers what…