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case management
The payment in 2007 is established from the above analysis. Future
payments
remain constant for all dates of injuries prior to 1/1/03. For dates
of injuries on
or after 1/1/03 the payment is to be increased by the SAWW percentage
increase
on each January 1.
For injuries on or after 1/1/03 the payment remains constant throughout
the
calendar year – until January 1, 2008. Future payments are not
increased at a
constant rate. Increases come in steps.
Since payments are made every two weeks the first payment of a calendar
year
may cover some days from the previous year and some days in the following
year.
The first payment in the following year will be larger than the previous
year’s
amount but not the full amount for a payment in the following year.
A program that
computes present value must take this into consideration.
The SAWW increases for future years are not known. The best guess
would be
the past 50-year average. This 50-year average is 4.7%. This average
takes into
account decreases as well as increases; whereas, the labor code says
only
increases are considered. For the estimate of future SAWWs the 50-year
average
will be used.
In determining the present value of payments for the remainder of
a person’s life
it is assumed that the determination is being made in the year 2007.
This date of
determination is referred to as the date of commutation (DOC).
Payments that were made or that should have been made before the date
of
commutation (DOC) are not reduced by any present value computations.
All of the
payments that were to be made before the DOC are added to obtain a
total due.
Any payments that have been made are subtracted from that total to
obtain an amount presently due. This amount-presently-due should be
added to the present
value of future payments for a total present value. This addition
is to be done by the
user. The program does not take into consideration any amounts past
due at
the DOC.
The initial future payment is the payment amount set in the year of
DOC, i.e. 2007,
from Table 6. The payment for a weekly wage between the minimum and
maximum must be calculated as described above and shown in Table 6.
Once the initial payment is established the future payments are increased
on
1/1/08 and each year thereafter on January 1 by the estimated future
SAWW
increase of 4.7%.
Example: A maximum earner injured in 2003 would receive
a weekly payment of
$670.16 for the remainder of 2007. On 1/1/08 the person would get
a payment
increase of 4.7% to $701.49. Then again on 1/1/09 the increase of
4.7% would be
a payment of $734.46. The increases would be applied every January
1 for the
remainder of the payments. Payments during a calendar year would be
constant.
