Question: A report dealing with causation and apportionment was given limited weight by a workers’ compensation labor specialist since the report referenced the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Disease and Injury Causation and not the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, Fifth Edition which according to the labor specialist is the only medical guide recognized per their rules. What are your thoughts?
Answer: The AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, Sixth Edition should be the standard used in assessing impairment; however, some jurisdictions, such as yours, still make use of an outdated edition. (The rationale for using an outdated medical text is unsupportable.) The Guides focuses on the assessment of impairment, rather than other critical issues such as causation, apportionment, and ability to work.
The Guides has been widely adopted, but the text...
