Kansas Workers' Compensation Law Changes Effective January 2015

Pursuant to Kansas Bill 187, physicians rating work comp injuries must use the 6th Edition of the AMA Guides if the work injury occurred on or after January 1, 2015. (The 4th Edition was previously used and it's anyone's guess what ever happened to the poor 5th Edition). The 6th Edition requires the rating physician to base their rating on criteria that relies less on an injured workers pain complaints. The initial concern is that this will result in lower impairment ratings, which will translate into less compensation recovered by the injured worker. As a Kansas City work comp attorney who fights to get injured workers compensation for having to live their lives with a disabling injury, this is disheartening. However, I remain optimistic that the rating physicians will adjust and injured workers will continue to be properly compensated.