PERMANENT PARTIAL DISABILITY BENEFITS

Permanent Partial Disability Benefits provide minimum levels of benefits for people who experience certain types of serious, disfiguring injuries, even if they don't miss any significant time from work.

Up to 100 weeks of Permanent Partial Disability Benefits may also be paid as a result of serious scarring, hearing loss, vision loss, damage to internal organs or other catastrophic injuries.

Permanent Partial Disability benefits provide a minimum below which the total disability benefits paid to an injured employee may not go. Many people continue to receive one of the other three types of Louisiana Workers' Compensation disability benefits long after their Permanent Partial Disability Benefits have expired.

For example, the Louisiana Workers Compensation Act provides that a person whose index finger is amputated in an accident at work should receive Permanent Partial Disability benefits equal to 30 weeks of Temporary Total Disability benefits. So, if your finger is accidently amputated, you receive medical treatment, and you return to your same job at the same rate of pay within 6 weeks of your injury, you should receive Temporary Total Disability benefits during the six weeks you are out of work, plus 24 additional weeks of Permanent Partial Disability benefits.

But if your index finger is amputated in an accident at work, you have medical complications following surgery and it takes 40 weeks for you to recover and return to work, the outcome is very different. In that case, if you return to your same job with the same employer at the same rate of pay, you should receive Temporary Total Disability benefits during the entire time you are out of work, but you probably will not receive additional Permanent Partial Disability benefits because you have already received more than the minimum payment of 30 weeks of benefits the law requires.

Finally, if your index finger is amputated in an accident at work, you have medical complications following surgery and 40 weeks later your doctor releases you to work, you may be owed additional Supplemental Earnings Benefits if your employer is unable to put you back to work in a position that pays at least 90% of you average weekly wage.  If your disability prevents you from securing other employment that pays at least 90% of the income you were receiving before the accident, you should receive Supplemental Earnings Benefits for as long as your income remains reduced as a result of your work-related injury.

It's important to realize that Permanent Partial Disability benefits provide minimum levels of benefits for certain types of injuries and do not necessarily represent the total amount of benefits you should receive if you have one of these injuries.

 Next: Permanent Total Disability Benefits