When an employee sustains a second injury or aggravation, what is a valid approach to disability ratings?

• A. Consolidate into one permanent disability rating
• B. Apportion permanent disability between injuries
• C. Exclude the new injury from disability
• D. Reopen the claim for a new rating.

Answer: (B)

When a second injury or aggravation occurs, the correct approach is to apportion permanent disability between the injuries. This means assessing how much of the overall disability is caused by the preexisting condition and how much is caused by the new injury, and assigning portions accordingly. This avoids double-counting the same impairment and recognizes that each injury contributes its own share to the worker’s total disability.

Consolidating into a single rating would risk misrepresenting how much disability comes from each cause. Excluding the new injury would ignore its real impact on the worker’s impairment. Reopening the claim for a new rating isn’t the standard method when a second injury is involved; apportionment is the established approach to fairly divide the disability between the two injuries.