How long does an impairment rating take

For anything less than total loss, benefits are figured on a percentage basis. The North Carolina Industrial Commission publishes a ratings guide to help physicians make impairment evaluations. Here are those rating guidelines that include impairments such as the following:. This is a partial settlement that is made in a lump sum, usually when the injured worker goes back to work for the same employer earning the same wages as before the injury.

Under this kind of partial settlement, the injured worker retains the right to request additional medical treatment for another two years.

Impairment is a problem that affects the functioning of a part of the body and makes someone unable to use their body the same way they did before the accident or injury.

It can include physical impairments or mental impairments caused by injury or illness. Impairments can be permanent or temporary, severe or mild. Permanent impairment gives workers the ability to pursue longer and larger benefits.

Permanent impairments are also subject to impairment ratings, which place the impairment on a scale and quantify the injury. Total disability situations can also result in more compensation for a longer period of time. The terms disability and impairment are sometimes used interchangeably, but when it comes to benefits they mean very different things.

For example, someone who works as a postal employee may sustain a permanent back injury. The condition of his back is the impairment while his disability may refer to the inability to drive and to carry mail bags. Another person with the same impairment affecting her back might work at a desk job.

She may not be considered disabled, because she can continue her work in the office. She might not qualify for the same long-term benefits as the postal worker because she is not prevented from working.

While most workers are honest about their injuries, insurance fraud and mislabeling are very real concerns for employers and insurers. A medical impairment rating is completed by an independent professional in an appointment known as an Impairment Rating Evaluation IRE.

The rating gives a percentage number — between 0 and — to the level of impairment, so the worker, employer and insurer can all understand how much the worker has been injured and how much the impairment will affect work. If the medical impairment rating shows a worker can return to work at a lower-paying and less stressful job, she is considered partially disabled. The rating can be used to apply for benefits to make up for the income loss. If a worker is unable to return to work, she may be considered totally disabled.

A medical impairment rating can be used to help her secure benefits to pay for everyday expenses. An IRE is performed after someone has received weeks of benefits after an injury. The impairment must be considered permanent and the patient must have reached what is known as maximum medical improvement in order for an IRE to happen.

The focus will turn to managing the condition. A permanent impairment is stable and unlikely to change for at least a year. For example, if someone has suffered a serious brain injury at work, doctors will initially try to help the patient recover as much function as possible. After some time, though, doctors will decide the patient has reached maximum medical improvement. The patient, though, might still not be back to the same physical or neurological level he was before.

The impairment is, at least in part, permanent. One of the more important things that will arise out of the IRE is determining the extent of the disability. Can the employee return to work and earn the same income, or does he need to take on a less demanding job because of the injury and take a pay cut?

The answers to these questions are very important because they decide the benefits a patient may be eligible for. If an IRE determines that a worker has a rating of less than 50 percent, then the worker may be limited to benefits for no more than weeks. Any time a worker has been injured to the point where she has been getting benefits for weeks, a medical impairment rating is needed. View the related slidedeck: Maximum Medical Improvement.

When you have been injured or developed a medical condition that prevents you from working and providing for your family and If so, how is it valued?

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