Maximum Medical Improvement – Now What?
At some point in your Ohio Workers’ Compensation Claim, an injured worker will be declared to have reached Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI) and Temporary Total Disability (TTD) will end. When that happens what do you do?
Without being represented by a Board Certified OhioBWC Specialist Attorney an injured workers options will be limited because he/she will not know how to navigate the Ohio BWC system. There are many avenues to take, if and when, found MMI.
With a Certified Specialist Attorneyyou will be counseled as to what comes next. It could be a new condition added to the claim, which then creates “New and Changed Circumstances”. With new and changed circumstances, TT can again be requested. Most likely, the Ohio BWC or the Ohio Industrial Commission most likely will reinstate TTD.
Another avenue to pursue is Vocational Rehabilitation (VOC) through the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. If you are accepted into VOC, you will then be entitled to receive Living Maintenance Compensation (LM) while you are in the program. From that program there is an option to seek Wage Loss (WL), while you look for work (Non-Working Wage Loss) or when you get a job that pays less than you made when you were injured (less than your Average Weekely Wage (AWW).
For the information you need to protect yourself and your family, you should call Mike Gruhin, “The Comp Specialist”.