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An impairment rating is the percentage a physician assigns at maximum medical improvement to describe permanent loss of function from your work injury. Under Florida Statute § 440.15(3), the rating is assigned using a uniform permanent impairment rating schedule and converts directly into weeks of impairment income benefits.
Florida uses a uniform permanent impairment rating schedule established by a three-member panel in cooperation with the Division. The schedule must be based on objective findings, and it draws on the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, the Snellen Charts, and the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry Disability Schedules.
For injuries after July 1, 1990, and pending adoption of the uniform schedule, the Minnesota schedule applies unless it does not address a particular injury — in which case the AMA Guides are used.
The practical takeaway: a rating has to be grounded in objective findings under a specified schedule. A number that appears without that support is challengeable.
The statute is unusually specific. Only these practitioners may determine permanent impairment, as appropriate to the nature of the injury:
No other person is authorized to render opinions on the existence or extent of permanent impairment. A rating opinion from a physical therapist, a nurse case manager, or an adjuster carries no weight.
The certifying doctor evaluates you and assigns the rating after you are certified at maximum medical improvement, or six weeks before the expiration of temporary benefits — whichever comes earlier.
If the certifying doctor is not your treating doctor, the certification and evaluation must be submitted to your treating doctor, to you, and to the carrier within 10 days of the evaluation. Your treating doctor must then tell the carrier whether they agree or disagree.
The certifying doctor issues a written report stating that MMI has been reached and giving the impairment rating to the body as a whole. Where multiple reports exist, the carrier establishes an overall MMI date and an overall rating, and reports both to the Division within 14 days of learning of them.
There is also an early warning provision: if you have not been certified at MMI within 98 weeks after temporary disability benefits begin to accrue, the carrier must notify your treating doctor of these requirements. In practice, that notification often prompts an MMI determination just before the 104 week wall.
Florida ratings are expressed as impairment to the body as a whole, not to the injured limb in isolation. A significant knee injury may produce a modest whole-body percentage, which is often lower than injured workers expect. That is a feature of the rating system, not necessarily an error.
Because the benefit schedule is tiered, a rating dispute is worth more than the raw percentage suggests — the difference between 10% and 15% is not five points; it is 15 additional weeks of benefits.
Get the written rating report, not just the number the adjuster quotes. Check that every injured body part was evaluated, that the schedule used is identified, and that any apportionment is actually supported by preaccident medical records rather than assumed.
Only a medical physician, osteopathic physician, chiropractic physician, podiatric physician, optometrist, or dentist licensed under the chapters named in § 440.15(3), as appropriate to the injury. No other person is authorized to give an opinion on the existence or extent of permanent impairment.
A 10% rating produces 20 weeks of impairment income benefits, at 2 weeks per percentage point. Those weeks are paid at 75% of your temporary total disability rate. The dollar value therefore depends on your average weekly wage.
Yes. You can seek a second opinion through your one time change of physician, obtain an independent medical examination, or pursue an Expert Medical Advisor opinion where doctors conflict. A Judge of Compensation Claims ultimately resolves disputes.
Florida rates impairment to the body as a whole rather than to the individual limb, so a serious injury to one body part often produces a modest whole body percentage. That said, omitted body parts and improper apportionment are both common and both correctable.
Reviewed by: Scott J. Sternberg