Submitted by eric fogelgaren, Feb 13, 2007 11:35

There is a misconception of permanent partial disabiltiy payments. It has been made a red herring issue by carrier's and self insured employers in an effort to stampede those in power to "reform " workers compensation. Most of the most severe impairments, although classified as permanent partial disabilities, usually leave claimants with no real ability to perform work. Through custom and usage hardly any claimants are classified permanently totally disabled although they probably are from a vocational point of view. This leaves the erooneous impression that people are getting lifetime benefits while retaining an earning capacity. The reality is that the effect of changing this provision of the law will be to focus more on litigating whether there is a real earning capacity or not. A more realistic way of tackling this problem is to establish more definite medical legal guidelines for the determination of earning capacity such as is employed by the social securtity system.

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