Bill Text: IL HB3594 | 2015-2016 | 99th General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Amends the Workers' Compensation Act. Provides that one of the factors upon which the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission shall base its determination of the level of permanent partial disability shall be evidence of disability corroborated by objective findings in the medical records (rather than evidence of disability corroborated by the treating medical records). Deletes a provision that no single factor shall be the sole determinant of disability.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 5)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-03-27 - Rule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee [HB3594 Detail]
Download: Illinois-2015-HB3594-Introduced.html
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| 1 | AN ACT concerning employment.
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| 2 | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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| 3 | represented in the General Assembly:
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| 4 | Section 5. The Workers' Compensation Act is amended by | |||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | changing Section 8.1b as follows:
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| 6 | (820 ILCS 305/8.1b) | |||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Sec. 8.1b. Determination of permanent partial disability. | |||||||||||||||||||
| 8 | For accidental injuries that occur on or after September 1, | |||||||||||||||||||
| 9 | 2011, permanent partial disability shall be established using | |||||||||||||||||||
| 10 | the following criteria: | |||||||||||||||||||
| 11 | (a) A physician licensed to practice medicine in all of its | |||||||||||||||||||
| 12 | branches preparing a permanent partial disability impairment | |||||||||||||||||||
| 13 | report shall report the level of impairment in writing. The | |||||||||||||||||||
| 14 | report shall include an evaluation of medically defined and | |||||||||||||||||||
| 15 | professionally appropriate measurements of impairment that | |||||||||||||||||||
| 16 | include, but are not limited to: loss of range of motion; loss | |||||||||||||||||||
| 17 | of strength; measured atrophy of tissue mass consistent with | |||||||||||||||||||
| 18 | the injury; and any other measurements that establish the | |||||||||||||||||||
| 19 | nature and extent of the impairment. The most current edition | |||||||||||||||||||
| 20 | of the American Medical Association's "Guides to the Evaluation | |||||||||||||||||||
| 21 | of Permanent Impairment" shall be used by the physician in | |||||||||||||||||||
| 22 | determining the level of impairment. | |||||||||||||||||||
| 23 | (b) In determining the level of permanent partial | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 1 | disability, the Commission shall base its determination on the | ||||||
| 2 | following factors: (i) the reported level of impairment | ||||||
| 3 | pursuant to subsection (a); (ii) the occupation of the injured | ||||||
| 4 | employee; (iii) the age of the employee at the time of the | ||||||
| 5 | injury; (iv) the employee's future earning capacity; and (v) | ||||||
| 6 | evidence of disability corroborated by objective findings in | ||||||
| 7 | the treating medical records. No single enumerated factor shall | ||||||
| 8 | be the sole determinant of disability. In determining the level | ||||||
| 9 | of disability, the relevance and weight of any factors used in | ||||||
| 10 | addition to the level of impairment as reported by the | ||||||
| 11 | physician must be explained in a written order.
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| 12 | (Source: P.A. 97-18, eff. 6-28-11.)
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