Claims process
Maximum medical improvement
Maximum medical improvement, or MMI, is the point at which an injured person's condition has stabilized and is not expected to improve further with additional treatment.
Most attorneys will not settle before MMI, because until then nobody knows what future care will cost and settling early means guessing at it.
This is the most common reason a case that feels finished has not settled. It is also the most common reason people need funding — MMI can be a year or more away.
In workers' compensation, MMI is usually followed by an impairment rating that drives the permanency award.
Related terms
- Impairment rating — An impairment rating is a physician's percentage assessment of permanent loss of function after maximum medical improvement, used mainly in workers' compensation to calculate the permanency award.
- Damages — Damages are the money awarded to compensate for harm, divided into economic damages such as medical bills and lost wages, non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, and in rare cases punitive damages intended to punish.
- Settlement — A settlement is an agreement resolving a claim for an agreed sum, in exchange for which the claimant signs a release permanently giving up the right to pursue it further.
Need the money rather than the definition?
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