What the panel ordered
Findings and Award of November 12, 2020 affirmed except issues of temporary total disability period and permanent and stationary date deferred; matter returned to WCJ for further proceedings
Petition for Reconsideration granted to further study factual and legal issues; matter returned to WCJ for further proceedings on temporary disability period and permanent and stationary date
What was disputed, and how it came out
Each issue the panel decided, with the reasoning it gave. An outcome is what this panel did on this record — not a rule, and not a prediction.
The medical reports lacked sufficient reasoning to support the opinions on the temporary disability period and permanent and stationary date, requiring further development of the record and supplemental reports from the physicians.
From the decision · page 5As to the issues of temporary disability and the permanent and stationary date, as noted above, in her June 26, 2019 report, Dr. Hsia said that applicant was "P&S with respect to the slip- and-fall as of 8-16-17 which is one year following the incident" and she later said, "She is P&S with respect to her cervical spine as of the date of the MRI." (Joint Exh. II, p. 32.) In his September 16, 2019 report, Dr. Meehan agreed with Dr. Hsia that applicant's condition caused by the August 6, 2016 injury was P&S as of August 16, 2017, and that her cervical spine injury was P&S as of the date of the MRI (Joint Exh. EE, p. 3.) We note that the only cervical spine MRI that Dr. Hsia mentioned was done by Natraj Shanmugam, M.D., on November 11, 2016. (Joint Exh. FF, p. 11, record review.) We do not understand the doctors' rationale for their opinions that applicant's condition caused by the August 6, 2016 slip and fall injury was P&S as of August 16, 2017, but the cervical spine injury (that was caused by the August 6, 2016 slip and fall injury) was P&S as of November 11, 2016, the date of the MRI.