Define MMI

After an injury, the patient is sent to rehabilitation in order to recover. Sometimes, that rehabilitation does not lead to a full recovery. The patient is then left with a disability that is permanent. This is MMI or maximum medical improvement.

Function

• Maximum medical improvement (MMI) is a distinction used primarily by workers compensation officials to describe patients who have been assessed for long term or permanent disability.

Time Frame

• The term "MMI" is used to describe a patient whose medical condition is stable, yet will remain unchanged for at least a year. It's used to describe a condition that is very likely a permanent disability, one that will never heal.

Unchangeable

• Further medical intervention will have no affect on the MMI condition. It will not improve, nor will the lack of medical treatment make the patient’s condition deteriorate.

Term Change

• According to the American Medical Association, at the point of MMI, an injury changes classification from “impairment” distinction to permanent disability.

Determination Process

• The patient is assessed throughout his recovery. At the point of MMI, the injury, recovery history and medical records are examined. Then, the patient’s work and basic living activities are assessed. A complicated evaluation is then made to determine if the recovery is at the point of maximal medical improvement.