No. 05373889 (1999). EMPLOYEE: Christopher Lewin.
Case Date | January 29, 1999 |
Court | Massachusetts |
Massachusetts Workers Compensation
1999.
No. 05373889 (1999).
EMPLOYEE: Christopher Lewin
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS EMPLOYEE: Christopher Lewin EMPLOYER: Danvers
Butchery, Inc. INSURER: Public Service MutualBOARD NO. 05373889REVIEWING BOARD DECISION (Judges Carroll, Levine and Maze-Rothstein)APPEARANCES
William N. Batty, Esq., for the employee
Paul R. Matthews, Esq., for the insurer
CARROLL, J. The employee appeals a
decision in which an administrative judge denied and dismissed his claim for
§ 30 medical benefits to pay for chiropractic treatment that he claimed
was causally related to his accepted 1989 industrial injury. The employee
argues that the judge applied the wrong standard in deciding that the
employee's palliative treatment was not compensable. We agree that the judge,
while recognizing that palliative treatment can be compensable, appeared to
base his denial of the claim on the lack of medical improvement gained from the
treatment. We therefore recommit the case for clarification and further
findings.
Mr. Lewin injured his back in an industrial accident on September
30, 1989. He remained out of work until 1991, when he lump summed his case, and
returned to work in Georgia. He did not treat during the four years he lived in
Georgia, although he experi-enced ongoing back pain the entire time. In 1995,
the employee returned to Massachusetts, and began to treat with Dr. Steven
Galena, a chiropractor in Danvers. (Dec. 3.) He had daily treatments for the
first week and then gradually decreased to one visit per week. (Dec. 3-4.) The
employee felt better after each visit to the chiropractor although the relief
was only temporary. (Dec. 4.) He was working as a house manager for a group
home throughout the period of disputed treatment. Id.
Mr. Lewin filed a § 30 medical benefits claim for
chiropractic treatment from 1995 through December 17, 1996. (Dec. 7.) The
insurer resisted the claim. Following a § 10A conference denial of the
claim, the employee appealed to a hearing de novo. Pursuant to
§ 11A, the employee underwent an impartial examination by Dr. Daniel F.
Sullivan, a New Hampshire chiropractor. (Dec. 4.) The impartial examiner found
decreased ranges of motion and objective signs of low back pain causally
related to the industrial injury, noting that the employee took analgesic...
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