Permanent and stationary is a medical term that is used in California workers’ comp cases and is interchangeable with the term maximal medical improvement or MMI. If you’ve been injured on the job, a finding of permanent and stationary or “P&S” is made by a doctor when you’ve reached a point where your medical condition is no longer improving or getting worse; in other words, your condition has plateaued to the point where additional medical treatment will have no further benefit.
At this point in time, your doctor will then write a P&S report to the claims administrator indicating that you have a permanent disability. The report should include a description of :
- Your specific medical problems
- Work restrictions
- Any future medical care that you may need
- Whether you can return to your former job
- An estimate of how much your disability is a result of your injury vs other causal factors
- The impact that your injury has on normal life activities
Because this medical report will determine how much, if any, permanent disability resulted from your workplace injury and, ultimately, the amount of benefits to which you are entitled, it’s very important that you enlist the services of an attorney who is experienced in workers’ comp and disability law. Kim LaValley, workers’ comp attorney in California, has 40 years of experience handling cases involving workers’ compensation and disability law.
The doctor’s decision
After you reached permanent and stationary status, and your doctor has written your P&S report, that report will then be rated to determine the amount of permanent disability benefits to which you’re entitled. This amount is dependent upon a number factors including your age, occupation, the part(s) of your body that were injured, and the cause and extent of your disability.
Permanent disability ratings can range from 1% to 100% depending upon how much your disability affects your ability to work, either at your former job or a new occupation. If you receive a rating of 100%, you are considered to be totally disabled. Payments for permanent disability (PD) are payable to you in addition to any payments the you may receive for temporary disability (TD) and are over and above the cost of medical care.
Your best options
Problems can arise when it comes to determining the amount of permanent disability for which you’re are eligible for if you have a pre-existing disease or impairment to the part(s) of your body that was injured on the job. In other words, what percentage of your work injury resulted in your permanent disability vs. the percentage that may be due to a pre-existing condition. If there is any type of dispute about whether or not you’re permanently disabled or the extent of your disability, you may find that you’re not receiving the full amount of benefits to which you’re entitled.
California workers compensation attorney, Kim LaValley, of Gold Country Workers’ Comp Center will fight to get you the compensation and benefits that you deserve. Consulting with Kim early on in the workers’ comp claims process is critical to the success of your claim. Failure to do so can be costly in the end.
Call and schedule your free consultation with Kim LaValley today.
