The insurer filed a request for reconsideration following a decision in which the Tribunal found that the claimant was entitled to various medical benefits and a special award. Adjudicator Grant granted the insurer’s request for reconsideration in part, and the order for a special award was set aside. Adjudicator Grant was persuaded by the insurer’s argument that section 38(11) already had a punitive measure that did not need to be overlapped by an award. He agreed that by failing to properly deny the OCF-18, the “shall pay” consequences discourage an insurer from failing to respond to an OCF-18 that it receives, and serves as an appropriately punitive result. In doing so, Adjudicator Grant noted that the threshold for an award was high for a reason, and that a penalty on top of a penalty could be reasonably construed as excessive.
