Labor Ready v. Mogensen

While ORS 656.262(7)(a) and ORS 656.267 require "notice of new medical conditions, they do not require notice of diagnoses.” Moreover, “a particular diagnosis is not required to support the compensability of a work-related condition.”

Labor Ready appealed the decision of the Workers’ Compensation Board which determined that it could “address the compensability of the ultimately diagnosed condition” of the claimant. Claimant was injured at work resulting in the amputation of the upper portion of his left index finger. Claimant filed an additional claim for a “new or omitted medical condition” which Labor Ready denied. When Claimant initially filed the claim, he had been diagnosed with CRPS and listed that as the new condition. Two independent medical examiners determined varying diagnoses. By trial, all physicians agreed that the correct diagnosis was CRPS II resulting from the amputation. Labor Ready argued that because the denial of the additional claim was for CRPS, the administrative law judge was unable to decide on the compensability of CRPS II, which had not been diagnosed at the time the additional claim was filed, and therefore was not “encompassed within the claim” or the employer’s denial. This Court concluded that though there was disagreement regarding the diagnosis for Claimant’s additional claim, the underlying symptoms “remained constant and provided the basis” for Claimant’s additional claim and that this was supported by substantial evidence. Affirmed.