Workers’ compensation aims to provide you with financial flexibility while you work to recover from an injury and return to your job. As you work to rehabilitate from an injury, you’ll inevitably hit a point where treatment is no longer providing benefits, either because you’ve fully recovered or made it to a stage known as maximum medical improvement (MMI). As the term suggests, MMI is defined as the point at which “no further significant recovery from or significant lasting improvement to a personal injury can reasonably be anticipated.”
Many clients wonder how maximum medical improvement is determined, and what it means for their case? We answer those questions in today’s look at maximum medical improvement.
Who Determines Maximum Medical Improvement?
Maximum medical improvement after a work injury is determined by your treating physician, typically after an independent medical exam. Doctors are required to look at a number of different factors when determining if a patient has reached maximum medical improvement, including:
- If there has been significant lasting improvement in the employee’s medical condition.
- If significant recovery or lasting improvement is likely or unlikely, regardless of whether treatment is ongoing.
- If doctors have pursued all diagnostic evaluations and treatment options that could be reasonably expected to improve or stabilize the employee’s condition.
- If further treatment is primarily to maintain the employee’s current condition.
- If further treatment is primarily to temporarily or intermittently relieve symptoms.
You will be able to go to a doctor of your choice for an evaluation that may be used to determine your maximum medical improvement, and you have the ability to seek out a second opinion if you disagree with the assessment of the original physician. If there is a dispute over an assessment, a judge will make a final determination.
What Does Maximum Medical Improvement Mean For My Case?
Maximum medical improvement means a couple different things for your case depending on how your injuries were classified. If you are receiving Total Temporary Disability benefits, a declaration of maximum medical improvement will start the process of ending these benefits, since your disability is no longer considered temporary. If you have fully recovered, your benefits will cease, but if you have made a maximum recovery and are still impaired as a result of the injury, your MMI report will serve as testimony for your Permanent Partial Disability rating.
Once a PPD rating has been established, you’ll be able to apply for and receive permanent partial disability benefits. It’s also worth noting that reaching MMI will not affect any payments that are being made for temporary partial disability or permanent partial disability, only for TTD benefits. In most instances, you will not be able to receive TTD benefits 90 days after maximum medical improvement has been declared.
If you are confused about maximum medical improvement, or you just want to ensure that you are getting the benefits you are entitled to receive after a work injury, reach out to the team at Hey Workers today at (844) 439-9675.
