This Week with the NYS WCB

 Good Evening All: Here are some more decisions from the Board, not as recent, but relevant nonetheless. (1)     Schedule Loss Of Use In 2013, claimant was found to have 16.25% SLU right leg and 21.25% SLU left leg.  However, after undergoing surgery on both knees in 2018, SLU was revisited. The treating physician now found 50% SLU for each leg, while the IME physician found 35% SLU for each leg, after both surgeries were successful. While the treating physician failed to appear for depositions, his report was not stricken.  Nonetheless, after reviewing Table 7.5 of the 2018 Impairment Guidelines, which set forth 35% SLU for a "good outcome" of surgery, as well as the range of motion findings of the claimant's own physician, the Law Judge credited the IME findings. On appeal, claimant's counsel argued that the range of motion findings of the treating physician should not have been credited as a "good outcome," but the Board Panel disagreed.  While crediting...

 Here are some more recent Board Panel Decisions: (1).  C-8.1B Resolution The accident occurred in 2008 and claimant was found to have a schedule loss of use in 2009. The carrier denied a bill for treatment in 2020 because the pain was alleged to have arisen out of a work-related accident six months beforehand, and was therefore not causally related to the accident.  A Proposed Decision resolved the C-8.1B for the provider and the carrier objected. At the resulting hearing, the Law Judge resolved the C-8.1B for the carrier as unrelated, without prejudice to "resubmission related to any other injury." The claimant appealed, arguing that an opportunity to provide clarification should be provided.  However, based on the statement of the treating doctor that the pain began six months beforehand, rather than in 2008, there was no evidence of causal relationship to the accident in question, and the decision was affirmed. In the next few months, a new Form C-8.1B will take ...