Permanent Disability
Permanent Disability (PD) payments are available to workers whose injuries have left them with residual disabilities. If your doctor is telling you that you will always be limited in the kind of work you can perform or that you will never fully recover from your injuries, you should ask them to fill out what is called a Permanent and Stationary (or P&S) report. The P&S report simply states that your condition is not getting better or worse because you have reached Maximum Medical Improvement (or MMI). Your P&S report will also list any work restrictions you are subject to, your specific medical problems (including how much pain you have and what range of motion you have in the parts of your body that have been injured), what kind of medical care you may require in the future, whether or not you are able to go back to your previous job, and your physician’s rough estimate of to what degree your disability was caused by your job as opposed to other factors.
Once your physician has written your P&S report, you should share it with your workers’ compensation attorney and the claims examiner handling your case. Your attorney can then help you reevaluate your claim in light of the P&S report and assist you in applying for Permanent Disability if it is feasible.
