An union employee from York, PA, working in a heavy duty manufacturing position, sustained a work injury described as a right shoulder strain in February 2012, which the insurance carrier accepted. We filed a Penalty Petition because the insurance carrier illegally suspended the injured workers’ wage loss benefits. The insurance carrier had the injured worker attend an independent medical examination and the IME physician reported that the injured worker’s diagnosis could easily be consistent with a frozen shoulder and that she qualified for surgery to repair her shoulder and he placed her under light duty restrictions. The parties entered into a Stipulation in which the insurance carrier reinstated the injured worker’s wage loss benefits and amended the description of injury to include partial thickness tendon tearing / bursal side of the supraspinatus at the myotendinous junction / status partial bursal surface tear trans-tendon repair. The employee later returned to work elsewhere and began receiving temporary partial disability payments from the insurance carrier. The insurance carrier had the injured worker attend another IME with the same physician who reported that the employee’s work injury resulted in a small partial rotator cuff tear and impingement syndrome and that she was not fully recovered and that she had not reached maximum medical improvement. After the injured worker returned to work with a different employer, the insurance carrier filed a Modification Petition to have her benefits stopped. the Judge denied supersedeas and ordered partial to be paid. We then filed a Review Medical Petition because the insurance carrier had failed to pay the employee’s outstanding medical bills and out-of-pocket medical expenses. Sometime much later, the parties entered into a Stipulation which resolved the Modification Petition and ordered the defendant to pay the medical expenses at issue. We later settled the future partial benefits and future medical benefits for $100,000 via a compromise and release.
