PDRater – PD calculators

Need more time to think about Ogilvie, Almaraz/Guzman?

Sometimes even the WCAB needs more time to think.[1]

On March 26, 2009, the director of the Department of Industrial Relations, John C. Duncan, issued a letter to the entire Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board asking them to vacate their own decisions and solicit argument and amicus briefs.  Here’s a copy, courtesy of WCExec.com, the Letter from Director of DIR to WCAB re: Ogilvie and Almaraz/Guzman (3/26/2009).

On Monday April 6, 2009 the WCAB issued three Orders Granting Reconsideration and Order Allowing Amicus Briefs (en banc) in Ogilvie and Almaraz/Guzman.  For your review:

• Order Granting Reconsideration and Order Allowing Amicus Briefs on Wanda Ogilvie v. City and County of San Francisco, ADJ1177048, SFO 0487779, (en banc) (4/6/2009)
• Order Granting Reconsideration and Order Allowing Amicus Briefs on Mario Almaraz v. Environmental Recovery Services (a.k.a. ENVIROSERVE) and State Compensation Insurance Fund, ADJ1078163, BAK 0145426 (en banc) (4/6/2009) and Joyce Guzman v. Milpitas Unified School District and Keenan & Associates, ADJ3341185, SJO 0254688 (en banc) (4/6/2009)

What does the Order Granting Reconsideration of Ogilvie and Almaraz/Guzman mean for you?

1. Ogilvie and Almaraz/Guzman are still the law.  Despite Commissioner Aghazarian’s two concurring opinions, the WCAB did not issue a stay of either Ogilvie or Almaraz/Guzman.
2. The WCAB has granted SCIF’s petition for reconsideration in Almaraz, granting reconsideration on their own motion in Guzman, and the parties’ petitions for reconsideration in Ogilvie.  They have granted reconsideration on these cases to, “afford us a sufficient opporutnity to study the issues.”[2]
3. Any interested party may file an amicus brief no later than May 1, 2009 at 5pm.

1. Photo courtesy of radiospike photography [↩]
2. Hence, the “The Thinker” reference above… [↩]

Getting an upgrade!

Late last week a user asked for a new feature.[1]  He wanted to be able to perform the Ogilvie DFEC rebuttal calculation and have the results e-mailed to him.[2] Well, I built it![3]

To e-mail yourself a calculation, perform the calculation as normal.  When the website returns your calculation, it will say “E-mail Me!“  Just click that button and it will send an e-mail to the address you used to register for this website.

However, here’s the cool part:  I’ve installed this new e-mail system into every calculator! [4] No more having to copy and paste!  Just click one button and your calculation will show up in your inbox![5]

Although I intend this to be a paid-subscription-only feature, I am going to leave it open for all users while I get some feedback.  So, what do you think?  Please leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail!

1. Thanks Dennis! [↩]
2. Photo courtesy of Vernhart [↩]
3. Why, what did you do with your Saturday morning? [↩]
4. I haven’t installed it in some of the EAMS lookup functions [↩]
5. If you filled in the boxes for Applicant, WCAB #, and File #, it will include this information in your e-mail as well.  This is only for your convenience and not a requirement. [↩]

Indy 500

Wow!  500 registered users!

Last month I mentioned that this website had a record number of new visitors.  I honestly thought that was an anomalous one day spike in traffic.  Instead we’ve had a sustained increase in new visitors and people signing up to use the workers’ compensation calculators for free.

Since February 13, 2009[1] I’ve enjoyed posting about:

• New Important Workers’ Compensation Cases
  • XYZZXSJO2 v. SIF
  • Benson v. WCAB affirmed
  • Ogilvie v. WCAB (en banc)
  • Almaraz/Guzman v. WCAB (en banc)
• Two New Calculators
  • Ogilvie DFEC Rebuttal Calculator
  • XYZZXSJO2 Future Life Pension Rate with COLA/SAWW Increases[2]
• Online Glasses – Reviewed!
  • Goggles4U.com Review Part I, Goggles4U.com Review Part II, and Goggles4U coupon: “glassyeyes“
  • GlobalEyeglasses.com Review and GlobalEyeglasses.com coupon: “glassyeyes“
  • How to Order Glasses Online
  • Pupillary Distance Matters
• PDRater.com Milestones:
  • 400 registered users!
  • 300 registered users!
  • 200 registered users!
  • 100 registered users!
  • PDRater.com is one year old!
  • Relaunch of PDRater.com!

Ever since I relaunched this website I’ve had this idea in the back of my mind that getting to 500 users would be a big deal.  There are literally hundreds of workers’ compensation professionals who rely on this website and its calculators to make their lives a little easier.  This certainly feels like a big deal to me.

1. When the 400th user registered. [↩]
2. I am keeping this calculator in beta testing until I get a little more feedback.  If you want to try it out, just drop me a line! [↩]

Workers' Compensation Calculator

I had an interesting e-mail exchange with a friend (and fellow workers’ compensation professional) the other day.[1]

We were discussing the impacts of Ogilvie on 2005 schedule ratings.  He had asked me whether I intended to update the 2005 permanent disability rating calculator to include FEC Ranks after the scheduled 8.  I believe he had suggested FEC Ranks 9 through 20.

I have no intention of manufacturing FEC Ranks 9 through 20 for the following reasons:

• Maintaining Standards. The entire point of a rating schedule is to allow a standardized method for calculating disability and expressing those disability calculations.   If I invented my own FEC Rank system beyond the scheduled 1-8 Ranks, I would essentially be creating my own rating calculation system.  I’ve gone to considerable lengths to ensure that the rating strings produced by these permanent disability calculators are as standardized, recognizeable, and universal as possible.
• FEC Ranks are Irrelevant. The FEC Rank system is a simplified method of applying DFEC adjustment factors.  When you use the FEC Rank of a particular body part to adjust the standard using the charts on pages 2-6 and 2-7 of the 2005 PDRS (permanent disability rating schedule), what you’re really doing is essentially multiplying your standard disability against the FEC adjustment factor associated with the particular FEC Rank for the body part in question.  An FEC Rank is only useful for telling you the appropriate FEC adjustment factor to apply to the standard disability.  Thus, FEC Ranks are irrelevant and FEC adjustment factors are all important.
• Arbitrary FEC Ranks. FEC Rank 1 has an FEC adjustment factor of “1.100″.  However, using the Ogilvie DFEC rebuttal formula, it is possible to end up with very low FEC adjustment factors.  In extreme circumstances it would be possible to have a negative FEC adjustment factor.  The only way to resolve this would be to have several possible negative FEC Ranks.  Besides being somewhat silly, worrying about additional FEC Ranks[2] misses the point.  If you’re using the Ogilvie DFEC rebuttal formula properly, the result will be a new FEC adjustment factor.  If you already have the FEC adjustment factor, you have no need for the FEC Rank!

When I had discussed the impact of Ogilvie earlier, I had pointed out that in some cases the resulting formula will dictate that you use a different FEC Rank than the one indicated by the affected body part.  In other cases you will need to use an entirely new FEC adjustment factor.  In order to keep the 2005 disability calculator current I will eventually have to create a way for the user to override a body part’s standard FEC Rank and specify a new FEC Rank or their own FEC adjustment factor.

I’m not in any particular rush to develop this feature since Ogilvie seems to require three years of post-injury earnings.  I doubt we’re going to see litigation begin in earnest over Ogilvie issues for another 18 to 24 months.

1. Photo courtesy of Street Fly JZ [↩]
2. Both higher and lower than the normal 8 [↩]

1955 Packard 400

February has been a wacky month.  And, on Friday February 13th the 400th user registered for this website. [1] Since the 300th registered user, quite a lot has happened:

• Ogilvie, Almaraz/Guzman, and Benson came down.
• I wrote an Ogilvie DFEC Rebuttal Calculator.
• I added to my “Road Warrior Checklists”
  • Road Warrior Tip – Improving Long Drives
  • Road Warrior Checklist – Appearances
  • Road Warrior Checklist – Car
  • Road Warrior Checklist – Techie
  • Road Warrior Checklist – The Backpack
• I ordered inexpensive glasses online:
  • Cheap Online Glasses – Received!
  • Cheap Online Glasses?
• I wrote about Dell’s customer service:
  • Dell sent a tech to my home after hours for free to fix the motherboard on my out-of-warranty laptop
  • Dell offered to fix my out of warranty laptop
• I wrote about how to repair a laptop:
  • Repairing a laptop with a repair facility
  • How to decide whether to repair or replace a laptop
    • Hint: Scroll all the way down to the end of that post for a formula to help you decide whether you should repair or replace.
  • Repairing a laptop with the manufacturer
  • Repairing a laptop at a “big box” store
• I wrote about how NOT to build a successful website:[2]
  • How NOT to build a successful website: Frames
  • How NOT to build a successful website: Adobe Flash
• I wrote about How to Buy A New Laptop:[3]
  • How to Buy A New Laptop: Balancing Want and Need
  • How to Buy A New Laptop: Netbooks
• Besides being Friday the 13th, today has a very special meaning for the truly nerdy.  Unix is a computer operating system developed back in 1969.  For those of you who remember DOS, that kind of what it looked like.  The up-and-coming operating system Linux is based on Unix.  The Unix epoch, the time from which it starts to count “up”, was on January 1, 1970.  On 2/13/2009 at 6:31:30PM ET the Unix epoch reached the time “1234567890“.

1. Photo courtesy of atxbill [↩]
2. Trust me, its easier than it sounds… [↩]
3. I have several more of these planned [↩]