New date of injury for an open claim?

[ProbationRachel]

I am a probation officer in Sacramento, CA and was injured 2/28/2008 during a work training. There was no question of my injury being work related. My wrist, elbow, and shoulder were all affected. I went back to work immediately on light duty and worked that way until 4/1/2009 when I returned to work with no restrictions. In July of 2009 I was laid off. I then had wrist surgery in August of 2009 and collected worker's compensation checks for 3 months during recovery. I was then again released to full duty in December 2009.

On March of 2010 I attended a work training (I still work on-call) and my shoulder was very sore afterwards. My shoulder always gets sore after physical trainings since the initial injury. I mentioned that it seemed to be getting worse to my doctor during my last check up and he has since ordered an MRI and talked about me having shoulder surgery.

Today I received a call from him stating that he thinks I might have to receive a new date of injury for the shoulder because it had been steady for awhile and then suddenly got worse.

My question is - Can they make me file a new claim even though my other claim is still open and I have not been found permanent and stationary? The pain in my shoulder is exactly the same place it was before, only worse now. I am concerned about the idea of a new claim as I was employed full time during the initial injury date and now only work on-call and so the difference in worker's compensation pay is huge.

[1171]

no, they can't "make" you.
you don't have to file a claim at all; they can file on your injury independent of you.
whether there has been new injury is a legal question dependent on medical evidence.
yup, there can be differences in benefits; you don't get to choose. employers have a say as well.
exacerbation? temporary aggravation? cummlative trauma? whether you were at maximum medical improvement
sounds like you will need expert medical opinion and probably an atty
what do your doctors say?

P.S. even if it's the prior injury there are some case precedents that any temporary disability/IDL would be paid based on the wages you actually lost not your earlier higher earnings--there can be more then one TD rate on a claim.

If you don't have an atty yet contact your I&A officer for administrative help
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/IandA.html

[ProbationRachel]

Thanks for the reply - I just want to make sure that I know and understand all of my rights and the way this works. I have been able to make it this far without and attorney and was hoping to continue to be able to do so, but things are getting far more complicated now!

[1171]

that's exactly what you should be doing!
much of what you have to know has to be self-taught even if you have an atty.
much of how counties and a large public self-insured entity function is routine but comp rules are complex.
keep learning.
use the I&A unit and if you need an atty check here for a specialist in your area:
caaa.org