Did PWALSH Test Replace the WALSH Test For Workers Comp Jurisdiction?
One of the most useful tests and acronyms in the workers comp insurance world is how to test when an injured employee crosses state lines as part of their job duties. Claims adjusters have been using the WALSH or possibly the PWALSH tests for many years. Many articles have appeared on this website for the jurisdictional choice test.
Over the years, I have seen during claim reviews and premium audits, a few claims adjusters adding the “P” to the test as paid or what location the injured employee has been paid from recently. I also noticed the Salaried component of the test was changed to Supervised – interesting angle.
Let us look at the PWALSH test acronym. Workers comp claim departments love the acronyms.
- Paid – the location where the employee was paid from recently
- Worked – where the injured employee worked a majority of the time
- Accident – where the accident occurred
- Lived – injured employee’s home
- Supervised – where was the injured employee’s supervisor located?
- Hired – the location where the employee was hired
WALSH Acronym
- Worked – where the injured employee worked a majority of the time
- Accident – where the accident occurred
- Lived – injured employee’s home state
- Salaried – where was the employee paid from recently?
- Hired – the location where the employee was hired
The idea of the WALSH test was that the importance of each component was diminished as one moved down the list. Worked was the most important while Hired was the least. Is Paid the most important aspect? No, it should be above the H. The PWALSH test acronym recognizes where the employee’s supervisor is located.
I would say no as the first three out of the acronym describe the physical locations (WAL) that involved the injured employee before their accident.
I decided to do a Google search for the PWALSH test. All the results point back to the WALSH test. If one overrides the search for the WALSH test, a court case was shown to contain the PWALSH acronym as used by a claims adjuster.
Bottom Line With The PWALSH Test
I do like that the newest version of the test includes where the injured was supervised from – while still preserving the Salaried part of the WALSH test. Lastly, PWALSH would need to be altered to WALSPH to show the most important variables to the least. I do not think Salaried would suddenly become the most important one – denoted as Paid in the newest version.
