High Court Clarifies Standard for Calculating PPD Benefits

Permanent partial disability benefits for nonschedule injuries must be calculated based on functional impairment instead of lost earnings when workers have returned to employment and earn at least as much as they did before an injury, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled. The law dictating how PPD benefits should be calculated is not ambiguous, the high court said, so the Court of Appeals erred in January when it said the statute's ambiguity meant the functional impairment analysis didn't apply to Tyler Dungan's claim. The high court said Section 85.34(2)(v) requires benefits to be ...