I’ve just put up an “Articles Page.”
I’m looking forward to publishing articles from California workers’ compensation professionals. I have a few requirements, but they’re nothing onerous. So, if you’re a doctor, attorney, claims examiner, judge, hearing representative, lien claimant, or anyone else who makes your living through Workers’ compensation, drop me a line.
Articles from California workers’ compensation professionals coming soon!
If you’re interested in submitting an article, please read the requirements and then send me an e-mail.
Thus far, I’ve discovered only two cell phones that can take advantage of my calculators:
I’ve only tested the iPhone with the version of this site launched on September 17, 2007. However, it should still work.
Do you have a cell phone with a web browser? Click here:
If you see a message appear, your phone will probably work with the calculators.
So, yeah, the whole getting the “new calculators working” by July 23, 2008 thing isn’t going to happen. But, you knew that. I’m kinda sorry I even wrote that post. Two reasons:
That said, here’s my new goal: Updated calculators before the 2009 Permanent Disability Rating Schedule is adopted!
Today PDRater.com is one year old! You can click on the images below to see what this site used to look like.
The very first version of this website was launched on July 23, 2007.
On a whim I looked up what else has happened on July 23. Birthdays: Martin Gore of Depeche Mode, Raymond Chandler mystery writer, Woody Harrelson, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, and Slash of Guns N’ Roses.
Thank you wikipedia!
This first version of PDRater.com only calculated old and new schedule ratings and generated reports. Pretty ugly, I know. At this point I was just trying to put together something that would work.
I updated the entire website on September 17, 2007. I’m sure other important things happened on this date too.
This version of the website offered MDT (multiple disabilities table) calculators, CVC (combined value chart) calculators, lists of work restrictions, and a life expectancy calculator.
This was the first time that I offered a subscription version with additional features.
This is also the first version that had any kind of advertising. I started off with the ubiquitious Google Adsense you see everywhere. Then I put up ads from an independent certified impairment rating specialist SnapRater.com and a court reporter Janet Lombardi & Associates.
I spent WAY too much time developing the version of this site launched on January 1, 2008.
This version included a date calculator, temporary disability rate calculator, wage loss / total partial disability calculator, life expectancy calculator, life pension calculator, average weekly wage calculator, simple interest calculator, and permanent total disability calculator.
My goal was to offer more California workers’ compensation calculators than anyone else anywhere on the internet – and do it for free. I’m fairly certain that there is no other single source that has more calculators than you’ll find here.
The version of the website you’re now viewing was launched on July 6, 2008. I had been fiddling with WordPress as a website/blog platform for several months before this but didn’t switch over the main site until July 6.
Using WordPress as a website platform for these calculators has allowed me to focus on providing better content (links, downloads, self-indulgent blog posts) and on the calculators themselves.
When I launched this latest version, I took out all of the advertising so that I could focus on making the website look better.
That said, July 23, 2008 was a totally unrealistic and overly optimistic target date for totally revamped calculators. I really don’t know what I was thinking.
Hands down, the most common question I get is some variation of “free as in FREE?” I was going to add this question to the “frequently asked questions” page, but it’s asked SO often I’ve got to post it here.
Q: Free as in FREE? WHY are these calculators free? Why would you do that?
A: I’ve got a lot of reasons for making these calculators free.
First, I made the decision to not charge for calculations. While this might change in the future, I don’t think it will. The pay-only features don’t give you more calculators or more reliable calculations. Instead, you get a lot of ways to make your calculations even quicker, easier, and convenient by improving the search functions and creating reports.
Second, there are other websites and programs that offer some of the same calculators I do. Some of those are free. No one would use this site unless it offered the same or better service at the same or better price (free).
Third, while you don’t have to pay me anything, I think the pay-only features are useful enough that people will want them. The pay-only features1 are all designed to save you a lot of time and frustration. Most California workers’ compensation professionals have extremely high case loads. Shaving a few minutes off every case would save considerably more time and money than this website’s paltry monthly subscription.
Fourth, as the saying goes, “do what you love and the money will follow.” Heaven help me, I really enjoy working on this site. Over the last year I’ve invested a lot of time in this project. 2 Some people collect stamps, some people build things out of toothpicks. I design and program web based calculators for workers’ compensation professionals.
And, actually, upgrading to WordPress 2.6 was pretty easy. It’s supposed to be very similar to WordPress 2.5 so users of this site shouldn’t really notice a change. I like to keep my programs updated to take advantage of additional features. Additionally, most updates/upgrades install additional security measures.
I was concerned about the various plugins I’ve installed in this website and how they might interact with the new version. Some of them control how the site looks and others control how the site acts. They look fine so far . . . . If you notice something on the site which looks or acts weird, please let me know so that I can fix it immediately.
Hopefully I’ll be upgrading this website again in the next few days.
This website was created using the WordPress open source blog software. WordPress is a flexible program for creating websites and blogs. Since this program is “open source“, its source code is open for anyone to review and can be modified by anyone (sufficiently nerdy1 ).
The earliest test versions of the blog-website version of PDRater.com were built using WordPress 2.3. This was superseded by version 2.5 in late March. Version 2.6 was just released. I will be upgrading to the latest version as soon a I get a chance. If all goes well, you’ll never notice a thing.
As a side note, upgrading my installation of WordPress is a lesser priority than redeveloping the calculators.
Lately I’ve been working on cleaning up all of the calculators and making them easier to use. You can see the latest version here. Hopefully in the very near future these “updated” calculators will replace the ones currently available on this site. I’m retooling these calculators because the current calculators were built specifically for the old site. This also gives me a good excuse to implement some of the improvements I’ve been kicking around.
My arbitrary self-imposed target date to get the new calculators working is July 23, 2008 – the one year birthday of this website. I’ll have to find some screenshots of the original site for you to snicker at. It was pretty ugly.
More updates!
Now there are two links to the CCR’s. Its easier to search by code section through the DIR website, BUT its easier to search for a particular phrase through the Westlaw link. FYI: You don’t need a Westlaw account to use this service!
Have you seen the draft proposed 2009? Download it and take a look! Setting aside the issues of whether it will result in PD increases or decreases, there are some interesting changes from the 2005 schedule. This draft propsed 2009 schedule changes how age modifies a rating and completely revamps the FEC rank system. For more information, check out the DWC Newsline.
Are you fascinated by Benefits Notice Manuals? You’re in luck! Revised April 9, 2008.
What other downloads and links are you interested in? Drop a comment below or shoot me an e-mail.
