Act 111 applies to injuries that occurred prior to its enactment and that the employer is credited for payment of pre-Act 111 temporary total disability benefits and partial disability benefits relative to their obligations under Act 111 for IREs.
The claimant sustained a work injury on August 13, 2014. The employer acknowledged the injury as compensable via a Notice of Compensation Payable (NCP) on December 21, 2018. The employer filed a modification petition based on a December 19, 2018, Impairment Rating Evaluation (IRE) performed on the claimant. This was a post-Act 111 IRE. Act 111 became law effective October 24, 2018.
The claimant raised constitutional challenges to the IRE. The Workers’ Compensation Judge granted the employer’s modification petition and indicated the constitutional issues were beyond his jurisdiction to decide. The claimant appealed to the Appeal Board, which affirmed.
On appeal to the Commonwealth Court, the claimant argued that Act 111 was unconstitutional and could only be applied to claims that originated on or after the date of the passage of the present IRE mechanism, October 24, 2018. The claimant further argued that the IRE was invalid because it occurred before he had received 104 weeks of temporary total disability benefits after the enactment of Act 111. The employer countered by arguing that it was clear that § 3(1) of Act 111 states that an employer seeking an IRE after 104 weeks of temporary total disability benefits would be given credit for any weeks of temporary total disability benefits paid prior to Act 111.
The court agreed with the employer and dismissed the claimant’s appeal. In doing so, the court noted that the General Assembly made it clear in Act 111 that weeks of temporary total disability and partial disability paid by an employer/insurer prior to the enactment of Act 111 would count as a credit against an employer’s new obligations under Act 111. Citing their prior holding in the case of Rose Corporation v. WCAB (Espada), 238 A.3d 551 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2020), the court said that the General Assembly, in enacting Act 111, through the use of very careful and specific language, provided employers/insurers with credit for the weeks of compensation, whether total or partial in nature, previously paid.
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