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What does Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI) mean in Workers Comp? - YouTube
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all right time to continue our know your
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right segments uh this morning with
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catherine stowe from injury
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florida law and i like this that we're
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doing this this morning we're talking
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about um some lingos some terms
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when it comes to workers compensation uh
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that you will probably be
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hearing if you have not heard yet good
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morning catherine so good to see you
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thank you for having me as always yeah i
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mean it's really important that
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there's a whole textbook that just has a
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glossary of terms
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and they're terms that most people if
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they've never been in the system
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and they find themselves in it are going
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what does this mean
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it's also important for anyone sitting
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here listening
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that maybe has a worker's compensation
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case and maybe they're fairly new
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into it maybe they're not too far into
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it but eventually
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someone is going to raise the term
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maximum medical
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improvement and it's often referred to
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as mmi
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and the reason it's important that every
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claimant should understand
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what that term means is it can affect
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your financial benefits that workers
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compensation pays for you
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so what maximum medical improvement
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means
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is that the doctor in your case the
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workers comp doctor has determined that
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your medical condition
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and your injury you have gotten to the
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point where
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there is no further recovery doesn't
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mean that you're back to being perfect
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doesn't mean you're back to pre-accident
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level
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it just means that the doctor from their
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perspective
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doesn't believe that there's anything
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further that can be offered to improve
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your condition now it doesn't mean that
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you can't continue to get medical care
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um you may still be entitled to medical
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care you may still need medical
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treatment whether that be injections or
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medication
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but the doctor's saying that that
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treatment isn't going to improve you
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it's just going to keep you at status
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quo or maintain
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your level of pain um and so
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the reason it's important is because
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your temporary benefits
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that maybe are being paid by weekly
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could stop
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once the doctor renders you at mission
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medical improvement or mmi
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there again it goes back to important
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having communication with your doctor
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and also
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looking at the forms that you get from
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the doctor's office
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if they check on that second page that
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you're at maximum medical improvement
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you need to know what the next step is
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in your case
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you need to be prepared for what could
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potentially happen
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again your benefits may stop you may or
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may not be entitled to
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other classifications of benefits after
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that mmi date
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there's a number of different types of
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benefits that one may be entitled to
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or there may be no benefits that that
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person is entitled to
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so the other thing is typically in
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workers comp you don't have to pay
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for your medical treatment you don't
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have to come out of pocket until you
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reach maximum medical improvement
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at which point the carrier could um
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require you start paying a 10 copay to
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see the doctors
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now there's a lot of um
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a lot of variances with regards to that
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and there's a lot of things to know
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about that but it's important that
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everyone know that it's coming
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in their case at some point so here's my
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question do people really try to
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navigate this on their own
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i mean i can't imagine um being your
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everyday you know employee and having to
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go through workers compensation and
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trying to figure out what all this
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language means on their own and what
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step is next and what form
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you know a lot of time most of our calls
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are fairly early on
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a month to two months from the date of
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the accident
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but you would be surprised we get calls
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five six seven eight years into
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an accident and treatment and they've
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never had an attorney so
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it's really personal preference but
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again a lot
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can happen and there's a lot of
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navigating and a lot of things that
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the carriers don't have to tell you
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about um
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that you know if you had legal counsel
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we would be able to
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to to tell you along the way what you're
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able to do
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we've been showing uh the phone number
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the website and i know this is your
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passion to make sure that that people
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know these types of things and i know
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you're just so open to answering
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questions so
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we hope people do if they have questions
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call catherine stone in her office
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because they are eager to help
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so good to see you thanks so much for
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joining us you know how busy you are
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