STATE OF CALIFORNIA, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND REHABILITATION, Legally Uninsured, Administered by STATE COMPENSATION INSURANCE FUND ROSE WALTON WORKERS’ COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARDSTATE OF CALIFORNIAROSE WALTON, Applicant.vs.STATE OF CALIFORNIA, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND REHABILITATION, Legally Uninsured, Administered by STATE COMPENSATION INSURANCE FUND, Defendants.Case Nos. ADJ4323884 (VNO 0539846)ADJ3206055 (VNO 0539850)OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING RECONSIDERATION AND DECISIONAFTER OF RECONSIDERATION Defendant, State of California, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, legally uninsured, seeks reconsideration of the Findings and Award and Order, issued December 1, 2011, in which a workers’ compensation administrative law judge (WCJ) found in ADJ4323884 that applicant, Rose Walton, over the period 1983 through February 20, 2006, while employed as a correctional lieutenant, sustained 71% permanent disability, after apportionment, as a result of an admitted cumulative trauma injury to her mid and low back, hypertension, psyche, sleep disturbance, gastrointestinal system, esophageal reflux and headaches. In ADJ3206055, the WCJ found applicant sustained 2% permanent disability, after apportionment, as a result of an admitted November 9, 1998 injury to her low back. The WCJ concluded that 5% of applicant’s disability to the lumbar spine was due to the specific injury and 95% was due to the cumulative trauma injury in ADJ4323884. Defendant contests the 71% permanent disability rating of applicant’s cumulative trauma injury, asserting the rating by the Agreed Medical Examiner (AME) is not substantial medical evidence because he based his rating on impairment that would arise from a potential surgical treatment and not on her present level of impairment. Defendant further contests the additional 2% rating for pain, contending that the applicant’s radicular pain has already been incorporated into the criteria for the DRE method for rating
