By: Ron L Hilley II
Employers and insurers often deal with claims in which it seems
the injured employee is exaggerating his or her symptoms, particularly when
there is no objective testing that can explain the levels of reported
pain. At this year’s workers’ compensation seminar, psychiatrist Dr.
Matthew Norman discussed the difference between the medical terms “malingering”
and “conversion” within […]
By: Ken David, Esq.
We all know from experience that there is not a high success rate for spinal
cord stimulators in a workers’ comp claim, especially ones where there is
litigation. At KDA, Jennifer Smith and Jarvis Lakemaker have been studying this
issue and below are their thoughts on a recent AP study along with a link […]
By: Sarah Hegener, Esq.
By now, you may have had a Petition for Medical Treatment (PMT) call on one of your files. This new medical authorization process was implemented by the State Board of Workers’ Compensation in July 2017 to assist with expedited authorization for medical treatment recommended by an authorized treating physician (ATP) and […]
By: Wesley Moore
As in years past, the opioid drug epidemic and resulting impact on workers’ compensation cases was a prominent topic at the seminar. Dr. Carlos Giron of the Pain Institute of Georgia discussed alternatives to opioids. Considering the addictive nature of the drugs, Georgia physicians are exploring alternative treatments that will assist with […]
By: Tyler Jones, Esq.
It is rare to read a good report regarding the opioid crisis, but according to two recent studies, Georgia is included in a list of states that are effectively managing opioids by decreasing the number of opioids prescribed in workers’ compensation cases. According to a study by the Workers Compensation Research Institute, […]
by Christopher Pugh, Esq.
What constitutes an idiopathic injury is a familiar topic in workers’ compensation because the criteria can be confusing. Idiopathic claims are those in which an injury is deemed not to have arisen out of employment because the claimant’s injury was from an unknown cause or for reasons personal to the employee. A […]
by Emily Anderson, Esq.
Once an employee is injured, they have one year from the date of the injury to file the claim if no lost time is paid. When there is a specific accident, knowing what date to use is easy. However, not all injuries are that straight forward.
• Cumulative Trauma: when an employee does […]
by Emily Anderson, Esq.
Prior to July of this year, submitting an MSA to CMS held more of a risk, since the initial amount approved by CMS was typically the amount the parties were stuck with, even if circumstances changed. CMS would only review an MSA once, unless there was an obvious mistake (i.e. a math […]
by Vincent A. Toreno, Esq.
While Medicare Set-Asides have been a fixture in workers’ compensation cases for years, they have been much less commonly seen in liability cases. That will likely be changing. Until now, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has provided little guidance on how to ensure that Medicare’s interests are protected […]
by Frank A. Wasser, Esq.
On May 9, 2017, Governor Deal signed into law an expansion of Georgia’s medical marijuana program, which allows certain patients the ability to possess up to 20 ounces of cannabis oil to treat specific illnesses. The new law added six conditions eligible for treatment. Significantly, the law only allows physicians to […]
