I attended a hearing on your behalf in the above matter before Judge Burke in Hudson, New York on 07/18/17. The claimant was not present. His attorney, Paul Lahey, appeared by phone.
As you know, this case is established for an injury to the back injury with an average weekly wage of $1,241.00. The claimant has been out of work since 2006.
On 12/05/15, he was classified with a permanent partial disability with a 75% loss of wage-earning capacity. He was also found not to be attached to the labor market, so there are no ongoing awards in this case.
The case came on in response to an RFA-2OP which you filed on 05/22/17. You requested a hearing to address weaning the claimant off of opioid medications based on the 05/17/17 report from your IME consultant, Dr. Fiorini. Dr. Fiorini recommends that the claimant’s methadone usage be reduced to a reasonable level and tramadol be eliminated through a …show more content…
Mendoza within forty-five (45) days or by the date of today’s hearing. Dr. Mendoza has not produced any response.
At today’s hearing I moved to implement the findings of Dr. Fiorini based on the failure of Dr. Mendoza to respond. Mr. Lahey indicates the claimant told him that Dr. Mendoza has reduced his methadone to 70mg per day from the current 90mg a day. He requested an opportunity to obtain a response from Dr. Mendoza. He also pointed out that on its face Dr. Fiorini’s report seems to contain an error as to the total MED in its dosage per day. He calculated that the MED dose was only 280. Judge Burke made her own calculations and also felt that the MED dose was nothing like the 1,085 to 1,090 as listed by the doctor.
She decided she would give the claimant a final opportunity to produce a response from Dr. Mendoza on the current dosage, his plans for weaning the claimant off medications and a response to the IME report of Dr.
As you know, this case is established for an injury to the back injury with an average weekly wage of $1,241.00. The claimant has been out of work since 2006.
On 12/05/15, he was classified with a permanent partial disability with a 75% loss of wage-earning capacity. He was also found not to be attached to the labor market, so there are no ongoing awards in this case.
The case came on in response to an RFA-2OP which you filed on 05/22/17. You requested a hearing to address weaning the claimant off of opioid medications based on the 05/17/17 report from your IME consultant, Dr. Fiorini. Dr. Fiorini recommends that the claimant’s methadone usage be reduced to a reasonable level and tramadol be eliminated through a …show more content…
Mendoza within forty-five (45) days or by the date of today’s hearing. Dr. Mendoza has not produced any response.
At today’s hearing I moved to implement the findings of Dr. Fiorini based on the failure of Dr. Mendoza to respond. Mr. Lahey indicates the claimant told him that Dr. Mendoza has reduced his methadone to 70mg per day from the current 90mg a day. He requested an opportunity to obtain a response from Dr. Mendoza. He also pointed out that on its face Dr. Fiorini’s report seems to contain an error as to the total MED in its dosage per day. He calculated that the MED dose was only 280. Judge Burke made her own calculations and also felt that the MED dose was nothing like the 1,085 to 1,090 as listed by the doctor.
She decided she would give the claimant a final opportunity to produce a response from Dr. Mendoza on the current dosage, his plans for weaning the claimant off medications and a response to the IME report of Dr.