2020 and 2021 Kansas Work Comp Law Update
2020 AND 2021 Kansas Legislature: There were no substantive Kansas work comp legislative changes of import in 2020 or 2021.
Constitutionality of Statute Requiring Use of AMA Guidelines 6th Ed. – Johnson case decision issued by the Kansas Supreme Court: On January 8, 2021 the Kansas Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision reversing an August 2018 decision of the Kansas Court of Appeals that had struck down as unconstitutional the use of the 6th Edition of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, for measuring permanent impairment of injured workers under the Kansas Workers Compensation Act. Finding the language of K.S.A. 2019 Supp. § 44-510e(a)(2)(B) referencing the 6th Edition could reasonably be interpreted as a “guideline” rather than a “mandate,” the high court found the statutory provision constitutional. The court stressed the reference to the 6th Edition did not alter the additional statutory requirement that any impairment rating be “established by competent medical evidence” which rendered sufficient constitutionality of the statute as worded by the legislature.
The initial application of the Supreme Court’s Johnson decision by administrative law judges appears to adopt the approach that Justice Stegall, writing for the Court, delivered something for everyone in the Supreme Court’s Johnson decision. For the employer/carrier side, the 6th Edition language in the statute was deemed constitutional and therefore retained. For the injured worker side, the decision is being interpreted as opening the door for formulations of rating opinions outside of the four corners of the 6th Ed. of the Guides, as long as the rating opinions qualify as “competent medical evidence.”
It appears likely that the Kansas Supreme Court Johnson decision now opens the door for claimant-friendly impairment rating doctors to provide rating opinions which bear little resemblance to the ratings suggested in the AMA Guides, 6th Ed. It remains to be seen how the administrative law judges will weigh rating opinions not based upon the AMA Guides 6th Ed. as against competing medical expert opinions which utilize the AMA Guides, 6th Ed. The end result of the Supreme Court’s Johnson decision on the short-term is to open the door for more litigation over determination of a particular injured worker’s permanent impairment of function resulting from the work injury.
2021 Compensation Rates Update. The maximum weekly indemnity benefit rate was increased to $687.00, effective 7/1/2020 through 6/30/2021, based upon annual indexing to the state average weekly wage. The minimum weekly benefit rate for fatalities for the same period, pursuant to K.S.A. 44-510b, is increased to $458.00. Medical mileage reimbursement rate for the period January 1, 2021 through June 30th, 2021 is $.56 cents per mile.