Criteria: Each chapter provides specific criteria, i.e. Tables and Figures, that are used in assessing impairment. The physician must perform an appropriate evaluation and base impairment on reliable data, causally related to the injury. Discussion of how the Guides criteria were applied to medical information that generated the specific rating is required. The physician should include an explanation of each impairment rating value with reference, including pages and table/figure number, to the applicable criteria of the Guides.
Guidance: The evaluation must follow standards defined in Chapter 2, Practical Applications of the Guides, and the applicable chapters. Each of the chapters used to assess impairment present principles of assessment and detail how the assessment is performed. The impairment rating must be based on reliable, unbiased data. With the Fifth Edition, the average corrected impairment rating for a specific diagnosis is 4.3% whole person; whereas, the average for observed ratings is 9.7% whole person. (Source: “Impairment Ratings: Observations Based on Review of More than 6,000 Cases” published in the AMA Guides Newsletter, March / April 2010). The actual impairment for your diagnosis may be higher or lower than the observed average for all diagnoses.
