What the panel ordered
Petition for Reconsideration denied; permanent disability award affirmed at 71% with attorney's fees subject to adjustment.
Defendant sought reconsideration of the Appeals Board's Opinion and Decision After Reconsideration of December 20, 2021, which amended the WCJ's Findings and Award of November 30, 2020, increasing permanent disability from 65% to 71%. The Board denied reconsideration and affirmed the amended award.
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 Board found that Dr. Alpern's Almaraz-Guzman impairment rating, which included an 8% add-on for reproductive impairment due to applicant's younger age and a 1% add-on for testosterone replacement, was substantial evidence justifying a 71% permanent disability rating, overruling the WCJ's prior 65% rating.
From the decision · page 1Defendant seeks reconsideration of the Appeals Board's Opinion and Decision After Reconsideration of December 20, 2021, in which we found, pursuant to Milpitas Unified School Dist. v. Workers' Comp. Appeals Bd. (2010) 187 Cal.App.4th 808 [75 Cal.Comp.Cases 837] ("Almaraz-Guzman"), that the assessment provided by Agreed Medical Evaluator (AME) Dr. Alpern for additional impairment resulting from applicant's reproductive injury rebutted the strict application of the AMA Guides, and that the industrial injury to applicant's abdomen, groin, testicular cancer, and heart during the period ending December 11, 2014 resulted in permanent disability of 71 percent. Accordingly, we amended the Findings and Award issued by the Workers' Compensation Judge (WCJ) on November 30, 2020, wherein the WCJ had found that there was no Almaraz-Guzman rebuttal, and that the injury in question resulted in permanent disability of 65 percent.