New Software AMA Guides 6th edition

Disability Technology Inc is a software company specialized in disability and Impairment calculation based on AMA Guides 6th edition.
for any question, please contact: www.disabilitytec.com
or 214-755-5726 or hopkinsjh@sbcglobal.net

According to AMA:

 

Foundations of the New AMA Guides 6th Edition

 

The 6th Edition institutes ground-breaking changes. Using the 2001 World

Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning Disability

and Health (ICF) as its basis (WHO, 2001). This edition incorporates

functional status evaluation directly into the impairment rating process.

The new rating process closely approximates the four classic elements of a

routine medical examination: history, physical examination, clinical studies,

and functional status. In most chapters, the diagnosis will be the chief

factor determining the “class” of the impairment rating. Once a class is

chosen, there are only three to five numbers from which the impairment

rating may be selected. Within the five class numbers, movement up or

down from the middle number is determined by the grading factors. The

grading factors encompass the remaining elements not used to determine

the classification, usually physical exam findings, clinical studies, and

functional status.

Functional status is determined either by using a validated functional assessment

testing tool or by the physician’s assessment alone. If a functional

assessment testing tool is used, the physician should document further

physical examination findings and testing that validate the patient’s report

of function. In practice, functional assessment may only move the rating

number within the class by one step. Reports that vary by more than one

step are not used in the rating. The new process creates a new, more realistic

framework for impairment rating. Using the same methodology for

ratings in the majority of the chapters is expected to improve a physician’s

ability to perform reliable ratings. The use of a rating process that parallels

the common medical report structure should encourage practicing

physicians to use the AMA Guides. In addition, forcing specific numbers

for specific findings, without ranges, is expected to decrease some of the

arbitrary variation in ratings seen with previous editions.