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In re Compensation of Stockdale2/25/2004
an employer or insurer has authority to deny a combined condition that it previously accepted. Significantly, in providing the procedural means to invoke that denial authority, ORS 656.262(7)(b) does not require that notice of the denial be issued "later" than notice of the acceptance. That provision states only that, "once" the combined condition has been accepted, the employer or insurer must issue a written denial when the accepted injury is no longer the major contributing cause of the worker's combined condition. That provision obligates the employer or insurer to deny the claim in writing if the claim has been accepted. Nothing in those statutes provides a basis for us to conclude, as claimant urges, than an employer or insurer must wait for some specified period after accepting a combined condition before providing notice to a claimant that the condition has been denied.
We therefore conclude that an employer or insurer, once it accepts a combined condition, is entitled to deny the compensability of that claim "at any point" if the compensable injury ceases to be the major contributing cause of the disability or need for treatment. Belden, 155 Or App at 573. Nothing in the pertinent statutes precludes an employer or insurer from providing notice of that denial in the same letter in which it accepts a combined condition, provided that the effective date of the denial is later than the effective date of the acceptance. In this case, the letter issued by SAIF notified claimant of its acceptance of claimant's injury as a combined condition effective August 29, 2000, and denied the compensability of that condition as of June 13, 2001. Because the date of the denial was later than the effective date of the acceptance of claimant's condition, the letter did not violate ORS 656.262(6)(c).
Affirmed.
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