Blog / TTD vs PPD in Ohio Workers’ Comp: What’s the Difference?
Workers' Comp Basics
TTD vs PPD in Ohio Workers’ Comp: What’s the Difference?
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Written by Dylan Knisley
Dylan has been a practicing attorney since 2015, when he passed the Ohio Bar and joined the family firm.
Published on
Apr 29, 2026
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
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TTD replaces lost wages during recovery
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PPD compensates for permanent impairment after MMI.
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You can receive both, but not at the same time.
If you’ve been hurt at work in Ohio, you’ve probably heard the acronyms TTD and PPD thrown around without anyone slowing down to explain them. They sound similar, they’re paid by the same system, and they often get confused, but they answer two completely different questions.
TTD (Temporary Total Disability) replaces your wages while you can’t work because of a job injury. PPD (Permanent Partial Disability) compensates you for lasting impairment once you’ve recovered as much as you’re going to. The hinge between them is a determination called MMI, or Maximum Medical Improvement.
This article walks through how each benefit works in Ohio, how they’re calculated, and the moments in the process where calling an Ohio workers’ compensation attorney sooner can change the outcome of your claim
TTD vs PPD: The Quick Answer
l | TTD | PPD |
|---|---|---|
Stands for | Temporary Total Disability | Permanent Partial Disability |
Purpose | Replaces lost wages during recovery | Compensates for lasting impairment |
When paid | While you’re unable to work | 6 months after date of last payment of comp |
How calculated | 72% of FWW (first 12 weeks), then two-thirds of AWW | % impairment × weeks, paid at 2/3 AWW |
Duration | Until MMI, return to work, or other triggers | 1-time award |
Statute | ORC 4123.56 | ORC 4123.57 |
Application | C-84 (worker) + MEDCO-14 (doctor) | C-92 (worker) |
What Is TTD (Temporary Total Disability) in Ohio?
TTD replaces lost wages while a work injury keeps you off the job. It’s paid under Ohio Revised Code Section 4123.56 and is the first form of indemnity compensation most injured workers receive.
To qualify, your treating physician has to certify that you’re temporarily unable to work because of an allowed condition in your claim. Two forms keep TTD flowing: the C-84, which the injured worker submits, and the MEDCO-14, which the treating doctor submits. If either form is late or missing, payments can stop.
How TTD is calculated:
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First 12 weeks: 72% of your full weekly wage (FWW)
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After 12 weeks: 66⅔% of your average weekly wage (AWW)
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Subject to a statewide maximum that BWC updates each year
There’s also a 7-day waiting period built in. TTD doesn’t pay the first 7 days, but starts paying on the 8th day. You can get paid for those first 7 days only after missing 14 days.
Why TTD Almost Never Ends Because You’re “Fully Healed”
In our experience, TTD rarely ends because the injured worker has fully recovered. It ends because of a procedural trigger. There are four common ones:
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The Injured Worker (IW) returns to work in any capacity, including light duty the employer can accommodate.
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The treating physician declares MMI or releases the worker to full duty.
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Forms aren’t timely submitted (the C-84 or MEDCO-14 isn’t filed on time).
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A 90-day employer IME finds MMI. This one catches the most workers off guard.
Every 90 days, the employer has the right to send the injured worker for an Independent Medical Examination (IME) to determine whether TTD is still warranted. If that exam doctor opines MMI, the case goes to a hearing. If the Industrial Commission agrees, TTD stops retroactively to the date of that IME exam, and any TTD paid after that date becomes an overpayment the worker has to repay from future awards only.
That retroactive piece is what most workers don’t know about until it happens.
A One-Year Lookback Most Workers Miss
One thing every Ohio worker should know: TTD can only be paid back one year. If you didn’t get paid for missing work and you wait too long to flag it to an attorney, you lose access to those benefits permanently. Anything older than 12 months is gone.
Once one of the triggers above stops TTD, the next question becomes whether you qualify for PPD.
What Is PPD (Permanent Partial Disability) in Ohio?
PPD compensates an injured worker for permanent impairment that remains after recovery. It’s paid under Ohio Revised Code Section 4123.57. Unlike TTD, it isn’t a wage replacement. It’s a measure of how much lasting impairment the injury caused, calculated as an impairment percentage paid out at two-thirds of the worker’s average weekly wage, up to the max allowed based on the year of the injury.
A C-92 application can be filed 6 months from the date of last indemnity compensation paid in your claim, unless additional conditions or treatments are still being processed. There’s no benefit to waiting longer than that. There are two pathways under the statute.
%PP Award Under 4123.57(A)
A doctor performs an Independent Medical Examination and assigns a whole-body impairment percentage. The award is paid at 2 weeks per 1% of impairment. Each percent equates to 2/3 of your AWW, up to the max allowed based on the year of the injury. See the BWC’s compensation rates for 2011 through present.
A 10% impairment translates to 20 weeks of PPD; 25% translates to 50 weeks. The math is straightforward. The percentage itself is where the actual fight happens.
Scheduled Loss Under 4123.57(B)
For amputations or total loss of use of specific body parts, Ohio uses a scheduled award system with fixed weeks of compensation. A few examples:
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Hand: 175 weeks
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Arm: 225 weeks
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Leg: 200 weeks
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Foot: 150 weeks
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Eye: 125 weeks
Scheduled losses are separate from %PP awards and are calculated by the body part affected, not a whole-body percentage.
How the Impairment Percentage Actually Gets Set
The IME doctor uses the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, a reference book of charts and findings used to translate clinical observations into an impairment percentage.
Here’s the part that matters: initial exams are typically conservative. The first IME number is usually low. When the percentage comes in too low, an attorney can appeal and send the worker to a second doctor for an independent report. The case then goes to a hearing where the Industrial Commission’s hearing officer chooses a percentage somewhere between the two reports, or between three reports if the employer commissions one as well.
Roughly speaking, here’s what percentages tend to look like by injury type in our practice:
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Sprains and strains: typically around 4%
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Tears and ruptures: typically 10-15%
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Multiple injuries are non-exponential. If a worker with one shoulder tear receives 15%, two shoulder tears would not double to 30%. More often it lands around 20%.
Every case is different. But understanding that initial numbers come in low, and that they’re appealable, is one of the most valuable things an Ohio worker can know going into a C-92 exam.
A note on the AMA Guides edition: Doctors can use whichever edition they want. The latest edition is preferred, but the books cost roughly $1,000 each, so adoption tends to be slow. Most competent doctors are using a relatively current edition, but it isn’t standardized across every IME.
PPD Isn’t a One-Shot Deal
If a condition gets worse, or new conditions are added to the claim later, the injured worker can file an increase application to revisit the original PPD award. PPD can grow as the underlying injury changes.
Wage Loss benefits under ORC 4123.56(B), which include both Working Wage Loss (WWL) and Non-Working Wage Loss (NWWL), are a separate but related path for workers who can return to some form of work but earn less than they did before the injury.
MMI: The Hinge Between TTD and PPD
MMI stands for Maximum Medical Improvement. It means no further treatment is expected to make you better. You’re as good as you’re going to get.
This is the most consequential moment in an Ohio workers’ comp claim. When MMI is declared, TTD ends. The 6-month clock that leads to a C-92 PPD application begins running. The entire posture of the case changes.
The structural problem to watch for: a BWC or employer doctor may opine MMI before all potential conditions or treatments have been approved. Looking only at what’s currently allowed in the claim, the doctor concludes MMI based on incomplete information. That opinion may change once an additional allowance (AA) is approved or a pending treatment is authorized.
If you have additional conditions or treatments pending approval, the MMI determination may be premature, and it’s worth talking to an attorney before it gets finalized.
Can You Receive Both TTD and PPD in Ohio?
Yes, but sequentially, not simultaneously. TTD pays during recovery. Once MMI is reached and TTD ends, the C-92 PPD application can be filed 6 months from the date of last indemnity compensation paid.
PPD is also different from PTD (Permanent Total Disability). PTD is its own benefit with its own statute and its own eligibility test, generally reserved for workers whose injuries prevent any return to sustained employment. Many injured workers searching online for “PPD” actually need information about PTD, and a workers’ comp attorney can help sort out which (if any) applies.
What to Know About the 90-Day Employer Exam
The 90-day employer IME is the touchpoint we wish more workers walked into prepared.
The doctor is not your doctor. They will not offer treatment or medical advice. Their job is to determine whether you’re at MMI, meaning whether any additional conditions, treatments, or restrictions are still needed.
Exams typically last 5-15 minutes. The brevity is a feature of the system, not a bug.
Most of the time, the exam doctor will opine MMI. That outcome is expected. It’s the structure of how the system works.
What you do before the exam matters more than what happens during it. Our advice to clients:
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See your treating doctor first. Make sure any additional conditions or treatments you need are formally requested and on the record.
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If you’re not at MMI, get your treating doctor to say so pre-emptively, in writing, with reasoning. A treating doctor’s well-supported “not MMI yet” opinion is the strongest counterweight to a 5-minute IME finding.
This pre-exam visit is the single most important step most injured workers don’t take.
When Calling an Attorney Sooner Changes the Outcome
There’s a pattern in Ohio workers’ comp cases: the cases that go sideways are almost always the cases where someone waited. Here’s when timing matters most:
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Before signing anything. Settlement paperwork, return-to-work agreements, severance. Call before you sign, not after.
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Before a hearing on an issue. You only get two hearings on an issue, and appeal periods are short.
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As soon as an appeal period is running. Once it expires, the option is gone.
Waiting a week typically means another week without pay or treatment approvals. That’s a setback. Waiting months or years is where claims get permanently damaged.
There’s also a consequence most workers don’t anticipate: doctors don’t want patients who waited too long. The longer the gap between injury and treatment, the harder it gets to connect ongoing symptoms to the original work injury, and the harder it gets to find a doctor willing to pursue your case as a BWC claim.
Common Mistakes Injured Ohio Workers Make With TTD and PPD
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Missing the 1-year TTD lookback. Waiting too long to flag missed benefits means losing them outright. Anything older than 12 months can’t be recovered.
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Walking into the 90-day exam unprepared. Skipping the pre-exam visit to the treating doctor is the single most common preventable mistake we see. The 5-15 minute IME isn’t where the case is won or lost. The visit before it is.
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Filing the C-92 too late, or forgetting increase applications exist. PPD isn’t one-and-done. If your condition worsens or new conditions are added, you can file for an increase. Workers who don’t know that often leave money on the table.
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Failing to promptly report the injury. In Ohio, you generally have one year from the date of injury to file a workers’ compensation claim under ORC 4123.84. Reporting the injury to your employer and seeking medical treatment right away protects both your claim and your eligibility for benefits.
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Confusing PPD with PTD. They sound similar but they’re separate benefits with separate statutes and eligibility tests.
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Accepting an MMI determination when additional allowances or treatments are pending. A premature MMI finding can be challenged, but only if you act before it’s finalized.
Talk to an Ohio Workers’ Comp Attorney Before Critical Deadlines Pass
The TTD-to-MMI-to-PPD path has a clear structure, but the deadlines along the way (the 1-year TTD lookback, the 90-day exam, the 6-month C-92 window, and every appeal period in between) reward early action and punish waiting.
Knisley Law has been protecting injured Ohio workers since 1953. If you have questions about your workers’ comp claim, whether you’re navigating the line between TTD and PPD, dealing with a 90-day exam, or unsure where your claim stands, call us for a free case review.
Frequently Asked Questions: TTD and PPD in Ohio
Sources
· Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC). bwc.ohio.gov
· Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4123. Temporary Total Disability Benefits (ORC 4123.56). codes.ohio.gov
· Ohio BWC TTD Benefit Rate Tables (2025). bwc.ohio.gov
· Ohio Revised Code 4123.01. Workers’ Compensation Definitions. codes.ohio.gov
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The information on this blog is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this blog or contacting Knisley Law Offices does not create an attorney-client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.