Permanent partial disability awards and wage loss

Physicians handling workers compensation cases serve in a dual capacity not required of physicians treating non-workers compensation cases. Not only are they are asked to treat the workers' injuries and disability symptoms, but they are also frequently asked to evaluate the extent of economic damage done to a worker via the assignment of an impairment rating to certain types of injuries. Although physicians are trained to treat traumatic injuries as well as the symptoms of cumulative trauma processes, they generally receive no training in disability evaluation. The authors examine physicians' ability to carry out their latter, "lost earnings capacity" assessment, role. Their multivariate regressions indicate that physicians' impairment ratings are poor guides to subsequent wage loss; impairment ratings explain no more than one-half of 1 percent of subsequent wage loss.