Opinion ID: 2542051
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: ttd.

Text: The ALJ determined that Verdon's obligation to pay TTD benefits commenced on June 9, 2005, the day following the claimant's injury. Noting the absence of any proof of a specific date that the claimant reached maximum medical improvement (MMI), the ALJ relied on the earliest date that a physician assigned a permanent impairment rating. The ALJ determined as a consequence that TTD ended on December 20, 2006, when Dr. Sexton assigned a 44% permanent impairment rating. Verdon complains that the claimant failed to meet his burden of proving the duration of TTD because neither Dr. Sexton's report nor any other medical evidence specifies that he reached MMI on December 20, 2006. We disagree. KRS 342.0011(11)(a) permits TTD to be awarded during periods that an injured worker has not reached a level of improvement that would permit a return to employment and has not reached MMI. The courts have construed the provision to mean that a worker who is entitled to TTD must not have improved sufficiently to return to customary employment or have reached MMI. [28] KRS 342.0011(11)(b) and (c) base a finding of permanent partial or permanent total disability on the existence of a permanent disability rating, which KRS 342.0011(35) and (36) base on a permanent impairment rating assigned under the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. The ALJ's decision to award TTD benefits until the earliest date that a physician assigned a permanent impairment rating was reasonable under the evidence and properly affirmed on appeal. The Fifth Edition of the Guides indicates on page 2 that impairment is not considered to be permanent until the patient reaches MMI. Thus, the earliest date that a physician assigned a permanent impairment rating constitutes evidence that MMI occurred and TTD ended on or before that date. The ALJ did not err by terminating the claimant's TTD award on the date of the earliest permanent impairment rating because no evidence supported much less compelled a finding that MMI occurred earlier.