{"id":624,"date":"2014-09-28T10:01:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-28T10:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jhwlawoffice.com\/nevada-workers-comp-law-blog\/?p=624"},"modified":"2020-01-29T14:20:55","modified_gmt":"2020-01-29T14:20:55","slug":"dr-pirruccello-explains-how-to-rate-spinal-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jhwlawoffice.com\/nevada-workers-comp-law-blog\/2014\/09\/articles\/benefits\/permanent-partial-disability-awards\/dr-pirruccello-explains-how-to-rate-spinal-injuries\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Pirruccello Explains How to Rate Spinal Injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virginia : \u00a0The primary purpose of my blog posts is to inform Nevada’s injured workers about the law and the claims process. \u00a0However, I occasionally like to offer my readers from the workers’ compensation industry a more detailed analysis of a current issue that requires a working familiarity with Nevada workers compensation claims. \u00a0 The following is a guest blog post by a well-respected Nevada rating doctor on a difficult \u00a0rating issue. \u00a0(Chiropractors on the DIR’s list of rating doctors \u00a0are \u00a0qualified to rate any injury to the musculoskeletal system.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Under the 5th edition of the AMA Guides to Permanent Impairment, when a rating doctor is evaluating a cervical, thoracic, or lumbar spine injury, such as a herniated disc, the doctor must correctly \u00a0choose one of two rating methods in the book. \u00a0Whether the rating doctor uses the \u00a0range of motion method , or uses a DRE category can significantly change the percentage of impairment. \u00a0 Ultimately, the \u00a0amount of money the injured worker receives as his PPD award, will be affected. \u00a0I asked Paul Pirruccello, D.C, \u00a0currently on the DIR’s panel to review Nevada ratings for errors, \u00a0to explain when the Guides require that the rating doctor use the Range of Motion method of rating spinal injuries:<\/em><\/p>\n

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When Should the Range of Motion (ROM) Method Be Used for Spinal Impairment?<\/b><\/p>\n

When an adequate number of PPD ratings have come across your desk, you will inevitably come across spinal ratings where the ROM Method has been used because the rating doctor thinks there is “multilevel involvement.” \u00a0The major concern in these cases lies in the rater’s understanding of the AMA Guides definition of multilevel involvement.\u00a0 The proper utilization of the ROM Method is best defined in Section 15.2a #4 on page 380 of the AMA Guides, as follows: \u00a0a. Fractures at more than one level in a spinal region. b. Radiculopathy bilaterally or at multiple levels in the same spinal region. c. multilevel motion segment alteration (such as multilevel fusion) in the same spinal region. d. Recurrent disk herniation or stenosis with radiculopathy at the same or a different level in the same spinal region.<\/p>\n

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The key findings that must be associated with multilevel involvement, when using the ROM Method are: fractures, radiculopathy or alteration of motion segment integrity (fusion).<\/strong>\u00a0 Without one of these key findings the ROM Method should not be used.<\/div>\n
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I have oftentimes seen PPD reports where raters have used the ROM Method for multilevel degenerative disc disease, multilevel disc bulges, multilevel strain\/sprain injuries or multilevel disc herniations without multilevel radiculopathy.\u00a0 None of these qualify for use of the ROM Method.\u00a0 Always think multilevel fractures, radiculopathy or fusion when you think of the ROM Method and multilevel involvement.\u00a0 Without these qualifiers, the DRE Method is used.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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by Paul Pirruccello, D.C. Sept. 2014<\/div>\n
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Dr. Pirruccello has been a practicing chiropractor in Reno for 33 years and continues to treat workers compensation patients.\u00a0 He has performed PPDs since 1998 in Reno and Las Vegas, and PPD reviews since 2002.\u00a0 He is currently in his second stint on DIR’s PPD Review Panel.\u00a0 He can be reached for questions at <\/em>doctor@pirruccello.us<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virginia : \u00a0The primary purpose of my blog posts is to inform Nevada’s injured workers about the law and the claims process. \u00a0However, I occasionally like to offer my readers from the workers’ compensation industry a more detailed analysis of a current issue that requires a working familiarity with Nevada workers compensation claims. \u00a0 The … Continue reading Dr. Pirruccello Explains How to Rate Spinal Injuries<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[520,197,242,27,367,29,376,387,405,411,447],"class_list":["post-624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-permanent-partial-disability-awards","tag-awards","tag-disability","tag-fusion","tag-injury","tag-partial","tag-permanent","tag-permanent-partial-disability-awards","tag-ppd","tag-radiculopathy","tag-rating","tag-spinal"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhwlawoffice.com\/nevada-workers-comp-law-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhwlawoffice.com\/nevada-workers-comp-law-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhwlawoffice.com\/nevada-workers-comp-law-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhwlawoffice.com\/nevada-workers-comp-law-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhwlawoffice.com\/nevada-workers-comp-law-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jhwlawoffice.com\/nevada-workers-comp-law-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1570,"href":"https:\/\/jhwlawoffice.com\/nevada-workers-comp-law-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions\/1570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhwlawoffice.com\/nevada-workers-comp-law-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhwlawoffice.com\/nevada-workers-comp-law-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhwlawoffice.com\/nevada-workers-comp-law-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}