Workers' Compensation Discussion Forums

After being injured at work (IN CALIFORNiA) I received a discectomy and received a rating by by an AME of 18% and put on PD. 1 year later and three months into PD I had re-herniation and was reoperated on for Laminectomy, discectomy, facetectomy (and three other things I can't pronounce) now my question is :

Will my rating go up?

and before the claims administator mentioned that I didn't have open back surgery so is this open back surgery (laminectomy)? and what does open back surgery mean to me - why would that matter to the claims administrator?

unknown.
ratings are not based on your treatment or number of surgeries.
If they are successful, your disability should improve and rating will go down.
if the surgeries are unsuccessful it's likely your impairment has increased and so will your rating.
I suspect open back surgery is more radical and invasive and may have greater chance of failure.
make sure you file with the comp board within 5 yrs of your original injury for a review of your rating.

Thank you .

Do you know if I was put on PD and was really still injured and needed surgery if my payments should be recalculated as TD? The Claims Administrator is trying to tell me that he is going to put me on TD from the date of the second surgery. Is that correct?

that's really a medical question.
certainly you were not permanent and stationary at the time of the second surgery.
whether you were TTD prior to that is difficult to say.
that would be something to have the AME comment on when you go for a re-rating.