If you have been injured at work and are pursuing a workers compensation claim, you have probably heard about the Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE). The term itself may sound frightening, but there is actually nothing frightening or intimidating about it.
In fact, going through the FCE is required to get access to Injured Workers Permanent Disability and/or Impairment benefits in Los Angeles and all across California. This type of evaluation is used to determine an injured workers ability to return to work and the severity of his/her injuries.
Our Los Angeles on the job injury attorney at the Law Offices of Kropach & Kropach explains that the functional capacity evaluation is requested in order to gather more information about an injured workers injuries, the loss of his/her earning capacity and work abilities, what kind of work restrictions apply in his/her particular case, for how long the worker will be unable to perform his/her duties, and many more.
After filing a workers compensation claim, this type of evaluation will be carried out by a trained technician to gather the above-mentioned information about you and your workplace injuries through a variety of methods.
While some injured workers believe that the FCE is requested by their employers, it is not. In reality, any of your physicians – including but not limited to medical evaluators, regular physicians, treating physicians, and others – can request this type of evaluation to complete their report regarding your injuries.
Injured workers in Los Angeles and all across California are required to go through quite a few medical evaluations and tests before getting their workers compensation approved. And the FCE is the type of evaluation that can give a definitive and conclusive answer regarding your injuries.
In fact, our Los Angeles workers compensation attorney explains that the FCE can reveal much more information than physicians and doctors can obtain during a regular medical evaluation. This brings us to: “How are these evaluations performed?” Do not worry, while the FCE may sound very complicated and intricate, you will not be placed into some rocket and launched into space in order to complete this evaluation.
In reality, all you will have to do to complete the FCE is to go to a trained FCE technician’s office, answer some routine questions, and perform certain physical and non-physical tasks. The technician may also review your medical history, your past injuries, demographics, and other things if they are deemed relevant to the case.
Generally, you will be requested to complete questionnaires and pain diagrams so that the technician could have a better understanding of the nature and extent of your injuries, our Los Angeles on the job injuries attorney explains. More often than not, injured workers are required to go through a job analysis, which explores the physical demands at the workers primary job, describes job tasks and the environment in which they are performed, how these tasks are performed, and other factors.
In a nutshell, the purpose of the FCE is to determine the injured workers impairment and how that disability and impairment affects his/her ability to work. Therefore, the results of the FCE will have a direct impact on the value of your workers compensation benefits.
If you do not agree with the outcome of your FCE or have any other questions regarding workers compensation, seek the legal help from our best workers comp lawyers in Los Angeles, CA. Contact the Law Offices of Kropach & Kropach to get a free consultation today. Call at 818-609-7005 or complete this contact form.
