COLLEEN STEVENS, Petitioner,
v.
HOME CARE MANAGEMENT, LLC, HORIZON HOME HEALTH, and AMERICAN LIBERTY INSURANCE, Respondents.
No. 18-0279
Utah Workers Compensation Decisions
Utah Labor Commission
December 23, 2020
ORDER
AFFIRMING ALJ’S DECISION
Kathleen Bounous, Chair
Home
Care Management, LLC, Horizon Home Health and its insurance
carrier, American Liberty Insurance (collectively referred to
as “Horizon”) and Colleen Stevens ask the Appeals
Board of the Utah Labor Commission to review Administrative
Law Judge Stewart’s partial award of benefits to Ms.
Stevens under the Utah Workers’ Compensation Act, Title
34A, Chapter 2, Utah Code Annotated.
The
Appeals Board exercises jurisdiction over this motion for
review pursuant to §63G-4-301 of the Utah Administrative
Procedures Act and §34A-2-801(4) of the Utah
Workers’ Compensation Act.
BACKGROUND
AND ISSUES PRESENTED
Ms.
Stevens claims workers’ compensation benefits for a
low-back injury she sustained while she was working for
Horizon on February 4, 2018. Judge Stewart held an
evidentiary hearing and referred the medical aspects of Ms.
Stevens’s claim to an impartial medical panel. The
medical panel determined that the work accident medically
caused Ms. Stevens to suffer a new injury to her lumbar spine
that required surgical treatment. The panel concluded that
Ms. Stevens reached medical stability from her work injury as
of July 17, 2018, when she was released to return to work
without restrictions and that no future medical care was
necessary on an industrial basis. The panel added that Ms.
Stevens had returned to her baseline status.
Judge
Stewart relied on the panel’s conclusions over
Horizon’s objection and awarded benefits to Ms. Stevens
for her low-back injury, including temporary disability
compensation. Both parties filed motions for review of Judge
Stewart’s order. Ms. Stevens argues that she should be
awarded additional temporary disability benefits because the
panel erred regarding her release to return to work. Ms.
Stevens also requests that the Appeals Board clarify she has
not returned to her baseline status. Horizon challenges Judge
Stewart’s decision by arguing that it was error to rely
on the medical panel’s conclusions because they are
based on unreliable statements by Ms. Stevens regarding her
condition and medication usage. Horizon also contends that
any temporary total disability benefits awarded to Ms.
Stevens should be cut off as of the date her employment was
terminated for illicit conduct.
FINDINGS
OF FACT
The
Appeals Board adopts and summarizes Judge Stewart’s
findings of fact and finds additional facts from the medical
record to be material to the parties’ motions for
review. Ms. Stevens has a history of back problems. She
underwent surgery for a synovial cyst and instability at the
L4-5 level in December 2016. She also underwent surgery on
her cervical spine and an arthroplasty on her right hip in
January 2016 and December 2018, respectively. Ms. Stevens
treated her symptoms with Toradol injections, which she used
about once per month prior to October 10, 2017, and between
once every few weeks and twice per week after that date.
On
February 4, 2018, Ms. Stevens was assisting a patient
weighing between 200 and 230 pounds into a wheelchair when
the patient nodded off and fell onto Ms. Stevens’s
extended thigh. Ms. Stevens had her arms halfway extended
supporting about half the patient’s weight and was able
to complete the pivot to transfer the patient into the
wheelchair. During the transfer, Ms. Stevens felt a torque
sensation in her low back and pain shooting down her left leg
before later feeling burning in her right calf.
Ms.
Stevens sought treatment for her pain symptoms on February 9,
2018, from Dr. Brooks and later on February 20, 2018, from
Dr. Parson. Dr. Parson assessed Ms. Stevens with low-back
pain and lumbar radiculopathy. Dr. Parson opined that the
work accident resulted in a new injury that aggravated her
chronic pain. Dr. Parson instructed Ms. Stevens to follow up
with a spinal surgeon and released her to light-duty work
with restrictions of no lifting over five pounds, minimal
bending, and no transferring patients. Ms. Stevens described
that the pain in her left leg eventually dissipated, but the
pain in her right leg worsened.
On
February 27, 2018, Horizon gave Ms. Stevens the option of
resigning in lieu of termination for aiding in the
administration of morphine to a hospice patient that was
provided by the patient’s relative during a visit on
January 20, 2018. Ms. Stevens’s supervisor testified at
the hearing that the situation represented a hard question,
but her actions could be considered practicing medicine
without a license because the morphine was not prescribed to...
