This article is reprinted from the California WCAB Noteworthy Panel Decisions Reporter (LexisNexis).

The Panel QME process has evolved in interesting ways over the years. For dates of injury prior to 2005, the panel QME process did not exist. Instead, medical disputes were resolved by Qualified Medical Examiners (QMEs) chosen by the parties, or by a single Agreed Medical Examiner (AME) selected by the parties. At an expedited hearing, evidence in the form of several different medical reports were presented from all medical evaluators, including the primary treating physician (PTP), the injured worker's QME, the defendant's QME along with any surgical reports or reports from previous PTPs. Read more.

This noteworthy panel decision is brought to you by Rassp & Herlick, California Workers' Compensation Law, and will be added soon to the LexisNexis Services.

Permanent Disability; Rating; AMA Guides; Fibromyalgia. WCAB, affirming WCJ, held that applicant who suffered cumulative industrial injury to her back, psyche, and in forms of hypertension, fibromyalgia, sleep and arousal disorder, and irritable bowel syndrome, incurred 52 percent permanent disability, after apportionment, with 30 percent of disability allocated to sleep and arousal disorder as consequence of fibromyalgia based upon rheumatology  agreed medical examiner's opinion that sleep/arousal disorder arising from applicant's fibromyalgia resulted in stand-alone Class II impairment under Table 13-4 of AMA Guides and his use of Chapter 13 to rate sleep/arousal disorder by analogy pursuant to Milpitas Unified School Dist. v. W.C.A.B. (Guzman) (2010) 187 Cal. App. 4th 808, 75 Cal. Comp. Cases 837, when WCAB found that AMA Guides do not provide specific method for rating fibromyalgia, that because...read more.