English philosopher, John Locke, wrote in his Second Treatise of Government in 1689 that legislative authority consists of the power “to make laws, and not to make legislators.” Considering the Pennsylvania Supreme Court felt compelled to include this quote at the beginning of its review of Protz v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Derry Area School District), 124 A.3d 406 (Pa. Commw. 2015), it stands to reason that the court wanted to leave no doubt that the Pennsylvania General Assembly had, in fact, attempted to make legislators out of the members of the American Medical Association when the General Assembly authored Section 306(a.2) of the Workers’ Compensation Act.
As is well known by now, Act 57 of 1996 amended the Workers’ Compensation Act in an attempt to join the wave of jurisdictions that were appealing to The American Medial Association Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairments (The AMA Guides) to limit workers’ rights. The problem in Pennsylvania has been that the amendments called for reliance on “the most recent edition” of the AMA Guides in performing impairment rating evaluations (IREs). The Supreme Court has finally weighed in on the matter and found that the Pennsylvania legislature attempted to pass off to another body de facto control over matters of policy in violation of Article II Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
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