On September. 29, 2010, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that when an IRE is requested beyond the 60 day time frame after a claimant receives 104 weeks of total disability benefits, an employer must file a modification petition and is NOT required to demonstrate job availability or earning capacity to change the disability status to partial to limit the workers’ compensation claim to 500 weeks.  The Supreme Court found that with such an IRE, a claimant’s disability status cannot be changed to partial until it is adjudicated or agreed that either total disability has ceased or the impairment rating is less than 50%.  The purpose of an IRE is to establish a claimant’s degree of impairment, not to determine a claimant’s earning power.  Thus, an injury causing a life time of TOTALearning loss can be capped at 500 weeks. When the IRE is requested outside the 60 day window and is less than 50%, the IRE merely serves as evidence an employer may use at the modification petition hearing to establish that claimant’s disability status should be changed from total to partial.  The physician who performed the IRE is subject to cross-examination and credibility findings must be made.  Claimant may also present evidence rebutting the IRE impairment degree findings.  In short, an employer who seeks to change disability status under Section 511.2 of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act while not disturbing the compensation amount need not establish job availability or earning power when litigating the required modification petition to change disabilty to partial and limit the claim to 500 weeks. .  Diehl v. W.C.A.B. (I.A. Construction), No. 26 WAP 2009 (Supreme Court, 2010.