BETTY CLARK, Claimant
v.
SEDONA STAFFING, Employer,
and
ACE AMERICAN INSURANCE COMPANY, Insurance Carrier, Defendants.
No. 5054351
Iowa Workers Compensation
Before the Iowa Workers' Compensation Commissioner
March 11, 2020
Head
Note Nos. 1402.40, 1803, 1806, 2501, 2502, 2701, 2907, 3001
APPEAL DECISION
HEATHER L. PALMER, DEPUTY WORKERS' COMPENSATION
COMMISSIONER
Defendants
Sedona Staffing Services and Ace American Insurance Company
appeal from an arbitration decision filed on January 7, 2019.
Claimant Betty Clark responds to the appeal.
Iowa
Workers' Compensation Commissioner Joseph S. Cortese, II,
delegated authority to the undersigned to issue the final
agency decision on the intra-agency appeal currently pending
before this agency. The decision in this matter shall be the
final agency action.
An
arbitration hearing was held on August 3, 2018, at the
Division of Workers' Compensation, in Des Moines, Iowa.
The parties filed post-hearing briefs and the matter was
deemed fully submitted on September 10, 2018. The deputy
workers' compensation commissioner issued an arbitration
decision on January 7, 2019, finding the claimant sustained a
13 percent permanent impairment to her left upper extremity,
less apportionment of 5 percent, for an award of 8 percent
permanent partial disability of the left upper extremity, or
20 weeks of permanent partial disability benefits at the rate
of $199.72 commencing on July 15, 2016, ordering the
defendants to pay for all outstanding medical expenses,
reimburse the claimant for any out-of-pocket expenses paid,
and otherwise hold the claimant harmless from the April 17,
2015 emergency room visit totaling $224.00 and the December
4, 2015 bone scan totaling $165.00, granting the
claimant's request for alternate medical care and
ordering the defendants to authorize medical care with Ericka
Lawler, M.D. at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
and if Dr. Lawler declines to accept the claimant as a
patient, ordering the defendants, within 21 days from the
date Dr. Lawler declines to accept the claimant as a patient,
to identify another board-certified hand...
