Glossary of Worker’s Compensation Injury Terms

Read­ing Time: 11 min­utes

Last Updat­ed on June 19, 2023 

Glos­sary of Work­er’s Com­pen­sa­tion Injury Terms. Get Legal Help! Call Now for a FREE Con­sult with an Expe­ri­enced Work­ers Comp Lawyer at 844–682‑0999.

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Term	Descrip­tion
A
Agreed med­ical eval­u­a­tor (AME)	If you have an attor­ney, an AME is the doc­tor your attor­ney and the insur­ance com­pa­ny agree on to con­duct the med­ical exam­i­na­tion that will help resolve your dis­pute. If you don’t have an attor­ney, you will use a qual­i­fied med­ical eval­u­a­tor (QME). See QME.
Alter­na­tive work	A new job with your for­mer employ­er. If your doc­tor says you will not be able to return to your job at the time of injury, your employ­er is encour­aged to offer you alter­na­tive work instead of sup­ple­men­tal job dis­place­ment ben­e­fits or voca­tion­al reha­bil­i­ta­tion ben­e­fits. The alter­na­tive work must meet your work restric­tions, last at least 12 months, pay at least 85 per­cent of the wages and ben­e­fits you were paid at the time you were injured, and be with­in a rea­son­able com­mut­ing dis­tance of where you lived at the time of injury.
Amer­i­can Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion (AMA)	A nation­al physi­cian’s group. The AMA pub­lish­es a set of guide­lines called “Guides to the Eval­u­a­tion of Per­ma­nent Impair­ment.” If your per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty is rat­ed under the 2005 rat­ing sched­ule, the doc­tor is required to deter­mine your lev­el of impair­ment using the AMA’s guides.
Amer­i­cans with Dis­abil­i­ties Act (ADA)	A fed­er­al law that pro­hibits dis­crim­i­na­tion against peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties. If you believe you’ve been dis­crim­i­nat­ed against at work because you’re dis­abled and want infor­ma­tion on your rights under the ADA, con­tact a U.S. Equal Employ­ment Oppor­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion office. For the EEOC office in your area, call 1–800-669‑4000 or 1–800-669‑6820 (TTY).
AOE/COE (Aris­ing out of and occur­ring in the course of employment)	Your injury must be caused by and hap­pen on the job.
Appli­cant	The par­ty — usu­al­ly you — that opens a case at the local Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion Appeals Board (WCAB) office by fil­ing an appli­ca­tion for adju­di­ca­tion of claim.
Appeals board	A group of sev­en com­mis­sion­ers appoint­ed by the gov­er­nor to review and recon­sid­er deci­sions of work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion admin­is­tra­tive law judges. Also called the Recon­sid­er­a­tion Unit. See Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion Appeals Board.
Appli­cants’ attorney	A lawyer that can rep­re­sent you in your work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion case. Appli­cant refers to you, the injured worker.
Appli­ca­tion for adju­di­ca­tion of claim (appli­ca­tion or app)	A form you file to open a case at the local Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion Appeals Board (WCAB) office if you have a dis­agree­ment with the insur­ance com­pa­ny about your claim.
Appor­tion­ment	A way of fig­ur­ing out how much of your per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty is due to your work injury and how much is due to oth­er disabilities.
Audit Unit	A unit with­in the DWC that receives com­plaints against claims admin­is­tra­tors. These com­plaints may lead to inves­ti­ga­tions of the way the com­pa­ny han­dles claims
B
Ben­e­fit notice	A required let­ter or form sent to you by the insur­ance com­pa­ny to inform you of ben­e­fits you may be enti­tled to receive. Also called notice.
C
Claim form	The form used to report a work injury or ill­ness to your employer.
Claims adjuster	See claims administrator.
Claims admin­is­tra­tor	The term for insur­ance com­pa­nies and oth­ers that han­dle your work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion claim. Most claims admin­is­tra­tors work for insur­ance com­pa­nies or third par­ty admin­is­tra­tors han­dling claims for employ­ers. Some claims admin­is­tra­tors work direct­ly for large employ­ers that han­dle their own claims. Also called claims exam­in­er or claims adjuster.
Claims exam­in­er	See claims administrator.
Com­mu­ta­tion	An order by a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion judge for a lump sum pay­ment of part or all of your per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty award.
Com­pro­mise and release (C&R)	A type of set­tle­ment in which you receive a lump sum pay­ment and become respon­si­ble for pay­ing for your future med­ical care. A set­tle­ment like this must be approved by a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion judge.
Cumu­la­tive injury (CT)	An injury that was caused by repeat­ed events or repeat­ed expo­sures at work. For exam­ple, hurt­ing your wrist doing the same motion over and over or los­ing your hear­ing because of con­stant loud noise.
D
Death ben­e­fits	Ben­e­fits paid to sur­viv­ing depen­dents when a work injury or ill­ness results in death.
Dec­la­ra­tion of readi­ness (DOR or DR)	A form used to request a hear­ing before a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion judge when you’re ready to resolve a dispute.
Defen­dant	The par­ty — usu­al­ly your employ­er or its insur­ance com­pa­ny — oppos­ing you in a dis­pute over ben­e­fits or services.
Delay let­ter	A let­ter sent to you by the insur­ance com­pa­ny that explains why pay­ments are delayed. The let­ter also tells you what infor­ma­tion is need­ed before pay­ments will be sent and when a deci­sion will be made about the payments.
Denied claim	A claim in which the insur­ance com­pa­ny believes your injury or ill­ness is not cov­ered by work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion and has noti­fied you of the decision.
Descrip­tion of employ­ee’s job duties	A form filled out joint­ly by you and the insur­ance com­pa­ny that helps your treat­ing physi­cian decide whether you will be able to return to your nor­mal job and work­ing conditions.
Deter­mi­na­tion and order (D&O)	A deci­sion by the DWC Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Unit on a voca­tion­al reha­bil­i­ta­tion dispute.
Dis­abil­i­ty	A phys­i­cal or men­tal impair­ment that lim­its your life activ­i­ties. A con­di­tion that makes engag­ing in phys­i­cal, social and work activ­i­ties difficult.
Dis­abil­i­ty Eval­u­a­tion Unit (DEU)	A unit with­in the DWC that cal­cu­lates the per­cent of per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty based on med­ical reports. See dis­abil­i­ty rater.
Dis­abil­i­ty management	A process to pre­vent dis­abil­i­ty from occur­ring or to inter­vene ear­ly, fol­low­ing the start of a dis­abil­i­ty, to encour­age and sup­port con­tin­ued employ­ment. This is done ear­ly in the recov­ery process in severe injury cas­es such as spinal injuries. Usu­al­ly a reha­bil­i­ta­tion nurse is involved with you and your treat­ing doc­tor and the progress of your med­ical treat­ment is report­ed to the insur­ance company.
Dis­abil­i­ty rater	An employ­ee of the DWC Dis­abil­i­ty Eval­u­a­tion Unit who rates your per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty after review­ing a med­ical report or a med­ical-legal report describ­ing your condition.
Dis­abil­i­ty rating	See per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty rating.
Dis­crim­i­na­tion claim	A peti­tion filed if your employ­er has fired or oth­er­wise dis­crim­i­nat­ed against you for fil­ing a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion claim.
Dis­pute	A dis­agree­ment about your right to pay­ments, ser­vices or oth­er benefits.
E
Employ­ee	A per­son whose work activ­i­ties are under the con­trol of an indi­vid­ual or enti­ty. The term employ­ee includes undoc­u­ment­ed work­ers and minors.
Employ­er	The per­son or enti­ty with con­trol over your work activities.
Ergonom­ics	The study of how to improve the fit between the phys­i­cal demands of the work­place and the employ­ees who per­form the work. That means con­sid­er­ing the vari­abil­i­ty in human capa­bil­i­ties when select­ing, design­ing or mod­i­fy­ing equip­ment, tools, work tasks and the work environment.
Essen­tial functions	Duties con­sid­ered cru­cial to the job you want or have. When being con­sid­ered for alter­na­tive work, you must have both the phys­i­cal and men­tal qual­i­fi­ca­tions to ful­fill the job’s essen­tial functions.
Ex parte communication	Gen­er­al­ly a pri­vate com­mu­ni­ca­tion with a judge regard­ing a dis­put­ed mat­ter with­out the oth­er par­ty being present or copied with correspondence.
F
Fam­i­ly and Med­ical Leave Act (FMLA)	A fed­er­al law that pro­vides cer­tain employ­ees with seri­ous health prob­lems or who need to care for a child or oth­er fam­i­ly mem­ber with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-pro­tect­ed leave per year. It also requires that group health ben­e­fits be main­tained dur­ing the leave. For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact the U.S. Depart­ment of Labor at 1–866-4-USA-DOL.
Fil­ing	Send­ing or deliv­er­ing a doc­u­ment to an employ­er or a gov­ern­ment agency as part of a legal process. The date of fil­ing is the date the doc­u­ment is received.
Final order	Any order, deci­sion or award made by a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion judge that has not been appealed in a time­ly way.
Find­ings & award (F&A)	A writ­ten deci­sion by a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion admin­is­tra­tive law judge about your case, includ­ing pay­ments and future care that must be pro­vid­ed to you. The F&A becomes a final order unless appealed.
Fraud	Any know­ing­ly false or fraud­u­lent state­ment for the pur­pose of obtain­ing or deny­ing work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion ben­e­fits. The penal­ties for com­mit­ting fraud are fines up to $150,000 and/or impris­on­ment for up to five years.
Future earn­ing capac­i­ty (FEC)	A mul­ti­pli­er that increas­es the dis­abil­i­ty rat­ing based on how much wage loss a type of injury caus­es on aver­age when com­pared to oth­er types of injuries.
Future med­ical	On-going right to med­ical treat­ment for a work-relat­ed injury.
H
Hear­ings	Legal pro­ceed­ings in which a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion judge dis­cuss­es the issues in a case or receives infor­ma­tion in order to make a deci­sion about a dis­pute or a pro­posed settlement.
I
Inde­pen­dent contractor	There is no set def­i­n­i­tion of this term. Labor law enforce­ment agen­cies and the courts look at sev­er­al fac­tors when decid­ing if some­one is an employ­ee or an inde­pen­dent con­trac­tor. Some employ­ers mis­clas­si­fy employ­ees as an inde­pen­dent con­trac­tor to avoid work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion and oth­er pay­roll respon­si­bil­i­ties. Just because an employ­er says you are an inde­pen­dent con­trac­tor and does­n’t need to cov­er you under a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion pol­i­cy does­n’t make it true. A true inde­pen­dent con­trac­tor has con­trol over how their work is done. You prob­a­bly are not an inde­pen­dent con­trac­tor when the per­son pay­ing you: Con­trols the details or man­ner of your work Has the right to ter­mi­nate you Pays you an hourly wage or salary Makes deduc­tions for unem­ploy­ment or Social Secu­ri­ty Sup­plies mate­ri­als or tools Requires you to work spe­cif­ic days or hours
Inde­pen­dent med­ical exam­in­er (IME)	For injuries occur­ring on and after Jan­u­ary 1, 1991, when­ev­er the term “inde­pen­dent med­ical exam­in­er” is used, the term shall mean “qual­i­fied med­ical examiner.”
Infor­ma­tion & Assis­tance Unit (I&A)	A unit with­in DWC that pro­vides infor­ma­tion to all par­ties in work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion claims and infor­mal­ly resolves disputes.
Infor­ma­tion & Assis­tance (I&A) officer	A DWC employ­ee who answers ques­tions, assists injured work­ers, pro­vides writ­ten mate­ri­als, con­ducts infor­ma­tion­al work­shops and holds meet­ings to infor­mal­ly resolve prob­lems with claims.
Injury and ill­ness pre­ven­tion pro­gram (IIPP)	A health and safe­ty pro­gram employ­ers are required to devel­op and implement.
Impair­ment rating	A per­cent­age esti­mate of how much nor­mal use of your injured body parts you’ve lost. Impair­ment rat­ings are deter­mined based on guide­lines pub­lished by the Amer­i­can Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion (AMA). An impair­ment rat­ing is used to cal­cu­late your per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty rat­ing but is dif­fer­ent from your per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty rating.
L
Lien	A right or claim for pay­ment against a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion case. A lien claimant, such as a med­ical provider, can file a form with the local Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion Appeals Board to request pay­ment of mon­ey owed in a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion case.
M
Max­i­mal med­ical improve­ment (MMI)	Your con­di­tion is well sta­bi­lized and unlike­ly to change sub­stan­tial­ly in the next year, with or with­out med­ical treat­ment. Once you reach MMI, a doc­tor can assess how much, if any, per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty result­ed from your work injury.
Medi­a­tion conference	A vol­un­tary con­fer­ence held before an I&A offi­cer to resolve a dis­pute if you are not rep­re­sent­ed by an attorney.
Med­ical care	See med­ical treatment.
Med­ical-legal report	A report writ­ten by a doc­tor that describes your med­ical con­di­tion. These reports are writ­ten to help clar­i­fy dis­put­ed med­ical issues.
Med­ical provider net­work (MPN)	An enti­ty or group of health care providers set up by an insur­er or self-insured employ­er and approved by DWC’s admin­is­tra­tive direc­tor to treat work­ers injured on the job.
Med­ical treatment	Treat­ment rea­son­ably required to cure or relieve the effects of a work-relat­ed injury or ill­ness. Also called med­ical care.
Med­ical Unit	A unit with­in the DWC that over­sees med­ical provider net­works (MPNs), inde­pen­dent med­ical review (IMR) physi­cians, health care orga­ni­za­tions (HCOs), qual­i­fied med­ical eval­u­a­tors (QMEs), pan­el QMEs, uti­liza­tion review (UR) plans, and spinal surgery sec­ond opin­ion physi­cians. For­mer­ly called the Indus­tri­al Med­ical Coun­cil (IMC).
Mod­i­fied work	Your old job, with some changes that allow you do to it. If your doc­tor says you will not be able to return to your job at the time of injury, your employ­er is encour­aged to offer you mod­i­fied work instead of sup­ple­men­tal job dis­place­ment ben­e­fits or voca­tion­al reha­bil­i­ta­tion benefits.
N
Notice	See ben­e­fit notice.
O
P
Par­ty	Nor­mal­ly this includes the insur­ance com­pa­ny, your employ­er, attor­neys and any oth­er per­son with an inter­est in your claim (doc­tors or hos­pi­tals that have not been paid).
Per­ma­nent and sta­tion­ary (P&S)	Your med­ical con­di­tion has reached max­i­mum med­ical improve­ment. Once you are P&S, a doc­tor can assess how much, if any, per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty result­ed from your work injury.
Per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty (PD)	Any last­ing dis­abil­i­ty that results in a reduced earn­ing capac­i­ty after max­i­mum med­ical improve­ment is reached.
Per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty rat­ing (PDR)	A per­cent­age that esti­mates how much a job injury per­ma­nent­ly lim­its the kinds of work you can do. It is based on your med­ical con­di­tion, date of injury, age when injured, occu­pa­tion when injured, how much of the dis­abil­i­ty is caused by your job, and your dimin­ished future earn­ing capac­i­ty. It deter­mines the num­ber of weeks you are enti­tled to per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty benefits.
Per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty rat­ing sched­ule (PDRS)	A DWC pub­li­ca­tion con­tain­ing detailed infor­ma­tion used to rate per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ties. One of three sched­ules will be used to rate your dis­abil­i­ty, depend­ing on when you were injured.
Per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty (PD) benefits	Pay­ments you receive when your work injury per­ma­nent­ly lim­its the kinds of work you can do or your abil­i­ty to earn a living.
Per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty advance (PDA)	A vol­un­tary lump sum pay­ment of per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty you are due in the future.
Per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty payments	A manda­to­ry bi-week­ly pay­ment based on the undis­put­ed por­tion of per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty received before and/or after an award is issued.
Per­ma­nent par­tial dis­abil­i­ty award	A final award of per­ma­nent par­tial dis­abil­i­ty made by a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion judge or the Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion Appeals Board.
Per­ma­nent par­tial dis­abil­i­ty (PPD) benefits	Pay­ments you receive when your work injury par­tial­ly lim­its the kinds of work you can do or your abil­i­ty to earn a living.
Per­ma­nent total dis­abil­i­ty (PTD) benefits	Pay­ments you receive when you are con­sid­ered per­ma­nent­ly unable to earn a living.
Penal­ty	An amount of mon­ey you receive because some­thing was­n’t done cor­rect­ly in your claim. Paid by your employ­er or the insur­ance com­pa­ny, the penal­ty amount can be an auto­mat­ic 10 per­cent for a delay in one pay­ment to you, or a 25 per­cent penal­ty — up to $10,000 — for an unrea­son­able delay.
Per­son­al physician	A doc­tor licensed with an M.D. degree (med­ical doc­tor) or a D.O. degree (osteopath), who has treat­ed you in the past and has your med­ical records.
Peti­tion for recon­sid­er­a­tion (Recon)	A legal process to appeal a deci­sion issued by a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion judge. Heard by the Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion Appeals Board Recon­sid­er­a­tion Unit, a sev­en-mem­ber, judi­cial body appoint­ed by the gov­er­nor and con­firmed by the Senate.
Physi­cian	A med­ical doc­tor, an osteopath, a psy­chol­o­gist, an acupunc­tur­ist, an optometrist, a den­tist, a podi­a­trist or a chi­ro­prac­tor licensed. The def­i­n­i­tion of per­son­al physi­cian is more lim­it­ed. See per­son­al physician.
Pre­des­ig­nat­ed physician	A physi­cian that can treat your work injury if you advised your employ­er in writ­ing pri­or to your work injury or ill­ness and cer­tain con­di­tions are met.
Pri­ma­ry treat­ing physi­cian (PTP)	The doc­tor hav­ing over­all respon­si­bil­i­ty for treat­ment of your work injury or ill­ness. This physi­cian writes med­ical reports that may affect your ben­e­fits. Also called treat­ing physi­cian or treat­ing doctor.
Proof of service	A form used to show that doc­u­ments have been sent to spe­cif­ic parties.
P&S report	A med­ical report writ­ten by a treat­ing physi­cian that describes your med­ical con­di­tion when it has sta­bi­lized. See also per­ma­nent and stationary.
Q
Qual­i­fied med­ical eval­u­a­tor (QME)	An inde­pen­dent physi­cian cer­ti­fied by the DWC Med­ical Unit to per­form med­ical evaluations.
Qual­i­fied reha­bil­i­ta­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tive (QRR)	A per­son trained and able to eval­u­ate, coun­sel, and place dis­abled work­ers in new jobs. Also called reha­bil­i­ta­tion counselor.
R
Recon­sid­er­a­tion	See peti­tion for reconsideration.
Recon­sid­er­a­tion of a sum­ma­ry rating	A process used when you don’t have an attor­ney and you think mis­takes were made in your per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty rating.
Recon­sid­er­a­tion Unit	See appeals board.
Reg­u­lar work	Your old job, pay­ing the same wages and ben­e­fits as paid at the time of an injury and locat­ed with­in a rea­son­able com­mut­ing dis­tance of where you lived at the time of your injury.
Reha­bil­i­ta­tion consultant	A DWC employ­ee who over­sees voca­tion­al reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­ce­dures, makes deci­sions about voca­tion­al reha­bil­i­ta­tion ben­e­fits and helps resolve disputes.
Reha­bil­i­ta­tion counselor	See qual­i­fied reha­bil­i­ta­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tive (QRR).
Restric­tions	See work restrictions.
S
Set­tle­ment	An agree­ment between you and the insur­ance com­pa­ny about your work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion pay­ments and future med­ical care. Set­tle­ments must be reviewed by a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion judge to make sure they are adequate.
Seri­ous and will­ful mis­con­duct (S&W)	A peti­tion filed if your injury is caused by the seri­ous and will­ful mis­con­duct of your employer.
Social Secu­ri­ty dis­abil­i­ty benefits	Long-term finan­cial assis­tance for total­ly dis­abled per­sons. These ben­e­fits come from the U.S. Social Secu­ri­ty Admin­is­tra­tion. They are reduced by work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion pay­ments you receive.
Spe­cif­ic injury	An injury caused by one event at work. Examples
State aver­age week­ly wage	The aver­age week­ly wage paid in the pre­vi­ous year to employ­ees cov­ered by unem­ploy­ment insur­ance, as report­ed by the U.S. Depart­ment of Labor. Effec­tive 2006, tem­po­rary dis­abil­i­ty ben­e­fit increas­es are tied to this index.
State dis­abil­i­ty insur­ance (SDI)	A par­tial wage-replace­ment insur­ance plan paid out to work­ers by the state Employ­ment Devel­op­ment Depart­ment (EDD). SDI pro­vides short-term ben­e­fits to eli­gi­ble work­ers who suf­fer a loss of wages when they are unable to work due to a non work-relat­ed ill­ness or injury, or a med­ical­ly dis­abling con­di­tion from preg­nan­cy or child­birth. Work­ers with job injuries may apply for SDI when work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion pay­ments are delayed or denied. Call 1–800-480‑3287 for more infor­ma­tion on SDI.
Stip­u­lat­ed rating	For­mal agree­ment on your per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty rat­ing. Must be approved by a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion judge.
Stip­u­la­tion with award	A set­tle­ment of a case where the par­ties agree on the terms of an award. This is the doc­u­ment the judge signs to make the award final.
Stip­u­la­tions with request for award (Stips)	A set­tle­ment in which the par­ties agree on the terms of an award. It may include future med­ical treat­ment. Pay­ment takes place over time. This doc­u­ment is pro­vid­ed to the judge for final review.
Sub­jec­tive factors	The amount of pain and oth­er symp­toms described by an injured work­er that a doc­tor reports as con­tribut­ing to a work­er’s per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty. Sub­jec­tive fac­tors are giv­en very lit­tle weight under the 2005 rat­ing sched­ule as the sched­ule relies main­ly on objec­tive measurements.
Sub­poe­na	A doc­u­ment that requires a wit­ness to appear at a hearing.
Sub­poe­na Duces Tecum (SDT)	A doc­u­ment that requires records be sent to the requester.
Sum­ma­ry rating	The per­cent­age of per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty cal­cu­lat­ed by the DWC Dis­abil­i­ty Eval­u­a­tion Unit.
Sum­ma­ry rat­ing reconsideration	A pro­ce­dure used if you object to the sum­ma­ry rat­ing issued by the DWC Dis­abil­i­ty Eval­u­a­tion Unit.
T
Tem­po­rary par­tial dis­abil­i­ty (TPD) benefits	Pay­ments you get if you can do some work while recov­er­ing, but you earn less than before the injury.
Tem­po­rary total dis­abil­i­ty (TTD) benefits	Pay­ments you get if you can­not work at all while recovering.
Trans­porta­tion expenses	A ben­e­fit to cov­er your out-of-pock­et expens­es for mileage, park­ing and toll fees relat­ed to a claim. Usu­al­ly a reimbursement.
Treat­ing doctor	See pri­ma­ry treat­ing physician.
Treat­ing physician	See pri­ma­ry treat­ing physician.
U
Uti­liza­tion review (UR)	The process used by insur­ance com­pa­nies to decide whether to autho­rize and pay for treat­ment rec­om­mend­ed by your treat­ing physi­cian or anoth­er doctor.
V
Voca­tion­al reha­bil­i­ta­tion (VR)	A work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion ben­e­fit. If you were injured before 2004 and are per­ma­nent­ly unable to do your usu­al job, and your employ­er does not offer oth­er work, you qual­i­fy for this ben­e­fit. It includes job place­ment coun­sel­ing to help you find anoth­er job. It may also include retrain­ing and a voca­tion­al reha­bil­i­ta­tion main­te­nance allowance.
Voca­tion­al reha­bil­i­ta­tion main­te­nance allowance (VRMA)	Pay­ments to help you with liv­ing expens­es while par­tic­i­pat­ing in voca­tion­al reha­bil­i­ta­tion. See voca­tion­al rehabilitation.
Vouch­er	See sup­ple­men­tal job dis­place­ment ben­e­fit and non­trans­fer­able voucher.
W
Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion Appeals Board (WCAB)	An appeals board set­up in your state that reviews all the appeals in the state for review of work­ers’ comp claims.
Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion Insur­ance Rat­ing Bureau (WCIRB)	An agent of the state Depart­ment of Insur­ance and fund­ed by the insur­ance indus­try, this pri­vate enti­ty pro­vides sta­tis­ti­cal and rat­ing infor­ma­tion for work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion insur­ance and employ­er’s lia­bil­i­ty insur­ance, and col­lects and tab­u­lates infor­ma­tion to devel­op pure pre­mi­um rates.
Work restric­tions	A doc­tor’s descrip­tion of the work you can and can­not do. Work restric­tions help pro­tect you from fur­ther injury.
Work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion admin­is­tra­tive law judge	A DWC employ­ee who makes deci­sions about work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion dis­putes and approves set­tle­ments. Judges hold hear­ings at local Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion Appeals Board (WCAB) offices, and their deci­sions may be reviewed and recon­sid­ered by the Recon­sid­er­a­tion Unit of the WCAB. Also called work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion judge.
Work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion judge	See work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion admin­is­tra­tive law judge.

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