Injured workers often contact our Minneapolis office after they receive a letter from their workers’ compensation insurance company notifying them that they have reached Maximum Medical Improvement, or MMI. Clients are confused and don’t understand how the insurance company could possibly make this determination when they are still experiencing symptoms that their doctor assures them will improve with time.
With workers’ compensation in Minnesota, Maximum Medical Improvement has a specific definition with legal consequences. MMI means the date after which “no further significant recovery from or significant lasting improvement to a personal injury can reasonably be anticipated, based upon reasonable medical probability, irrespective and regardless of subjective complaints of pain.” Minn. Stat. §176.011, Sub.d 13 (a). MMI does not mean you aren’t still suffering from the effects of your injury, it means that the workers’ compensation insurance company believes that your recovery has reached a stage where it’s as good as it’s going to get. In other words you’ve reached a plateau in your medical condition.