QUALIFIED MEDICAL EVALUATOR (QME) EXAM
PREP 2026 | SELF TEST 1 PDF | PRACTICE
QUESTIONS WITH VERIFIED ANSWERS &
DETAILED EXPLANATIONS
QUALIFIED MEDICAL EVALUATOR (QME) EXAM PREP 2026 | SELF TEST 1
Practice Questions with Verified Answers & Detailed Explanations
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OVERVIEW
This self-test is designed to simulate the actual QME licensing exam experience —
work through each question independently before checking the CORRECT ANSWER
and RATIONALE to maximize retention and exam readiness.
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QUESTION 1
Under California Labor Code, which body is responsible for certifying Qualified Medical
Evaluators?
A. The California Medical Board
B. The California Department of Industrial Relations
C. The Division of Workers' Compensation Medical Unit
D. The Workers' Compensation Appeals Board
E. The State Compensation Insurance Fund
CORRECT ANSWER: C. The Division of Workers' Compensation Medical Unit
RATIONALE: The DWC Medical Unit is the administrative body responsible for
certifying, regulating, and overseeing QMEs under California Labor Code §139.2. It
handles applications, renewals, discipline, and compliance for all QME physicians.
,━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUESTION 2
A QME panel is requested in an unrepresented case. Within how many days must the
parties select a QME from the panel list provided?
A. 10 days
B. 20 days
C. 30 days
D. 45 days
E. 60 days
CORRECT ANSWER: C. 30 days
RATIONALE: Under California Code of Regulations §31.5, unrepresented injured
workers have 30 days from the issuance of the QME panel to select a physician. Failure
to select within this timeframe has specific procedural consequences.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUESTION 3
Which edition of the AMA Guides is used as the standard for rating permanent disability
in California workers' compensation cases for injuries on or after January 1, 2005?
A. Third Edition
B. Fourth Edition
C. Fifth Edition
, D. Sixth Edition
E. Second Edition
CORRECT ANSWER: C. Fifth Edition
RATIONALE: California Labor Code §4660 mandates the use of the AMA Guides
to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, Fifth Edition, for injuries occurring on or
after January 1, 2005. This is a cornerstone requirement for all QME impairment
evaluations.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUESTION 4
What is the maximum period of time a QME has to complete and serve a medical-legal
report after the evaluation?
A. 30 days
B. 45 days
C. 60 days
D. 90 days
E. 20 days
CORRECT ANSWER: B. 45 days
RATIONALE: Per California Code of Regulations §38, a QME must complete and
serve the medical-legal report within 30 days of the evaluation, with a possible
extension to 45 days if additional records are needed. The outer limit is 45 days. Failure
to comply may result in disciplinary action.
, ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUESTION 5
Which term describes the percentage of permanent impairment attributable to a prior
injury or pre-existing condition in a California workers' compensation case?
A. Causation
B. Aggravation
C. Apportionment
D. Contribution
E. Diminution
CORRECT ANSWER: C. Apportionment
RATIONALE: Apportionment, under California Labor Code §4663, refers to the
process of allocating permanent disability between the industrial injury and pre-existing
or subsequent non-industrial conditions. QMEs are required to provide a detailed
apportionment analysis based on causation.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUESTION 6
Under the AMA Guides 5th Edition, Whole Person Impairment (WPI) is defined as:
A. The percentage of body function lost due to injury relative to the total body
B. The percentage of earning capacity lost due to the injury
C. The total pain and suffering experienced by the claimant
PREP 2026 | SELF TEST 1 PDF | PRACTICE
QUESTIONS WITH VERIFIED ANSWERS &
DETAILED EXPLANATIONS
QUALIFIED MEDICAL EVALUATOR (QME) EXAM PREP 2026 | SELF TEST 1
Practice Questions with Verified Answers & Detailed Explanations
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OVERVIEW
This self-test is designed to simulate the actual QME licensing exam experience —
work through each question independently before checking the CORRECT ANSWER
and RATIONALE to maximize retention and exam readiness.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUESTION 1
Under California Labor Code, which body is responsible for certifying Qualified Medical
Evaluators?
A. The California Medical Board
B. The California Department of Industrial Relations
C. The Division of Workers' Compensation Medical Unit
D. The Workers' Compensation Appeals Board
E. The State Compensation Insurance Fund
CORRECT ANSWER: C. The Division of Workers' Compensation Medical Unit
RATIONALE: The DWC Medical Unit is the administrative body responsible for
certifying, regulating, and overseeing QMEs under California Labor Code §139.2. It
handles applications, renewals, discipline, and compliance for all QME physicians.
,━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUESTION 2
A QME panel is requested in an unrepresented case. Within how many days must the
parties select a QME from the panel list provided?
A. 10 days
B. 20 days
C. 30 days
D. 45 days
E. 60 days
CORRECT ANSWER: C. 30 days
RATIONALE: Under California Code of Regulations §31.5, unrepresented injured
workers have 30 days from the issuance of the QME panel to select a physician. Failure
to select within this timeframe has specific procedural consequences.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUESTION 3
Which edition of the AMA Guides is used as the standard for rating permanent disability
in California workers' compensation cases for injuries on or after January 1, 2005?
A. Third Edition
B. Fourth Edition
C. Fifth Edition
, D. Sixth Edition
E. Second Edition
CORRECT ANSWER: C. Fifth Edition
RATIONALE: California Labor Code §4660 mandates the use of the AMA Guides
to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, Fifth Edition, for injuries occurring on or
after January 1, 2005. This is a cornerstone requirement for all QME impairment
evaluations.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUESTION 4
What is the maximum period of time a QME has to complete and serve a medical-legal
report after the evaluation?
A. 30 days
B. 45 days
C. 60 days
D. 90 days
E. 20 days
CORRECT ANSWER: B. 45 days
RATIONALE: Per California Code of Regulations §38, a QME must complete and
serve the medical-legal report within 30 days of the evaluation, with a possible
extension to 45 days if additional records are needed. The outer limit is 45 days. Failure
to comply may result in disciplinary action.
, ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUESTION 5
Which term describes the percentage of permanent impairment attributable to a prior
injury or pre-existing condition in a California workers' compensation case?
A. Causation
B. Aggravation
C. Apportionment
D. Contribution
E. Diminution
CORRECT ANSWER: C. Apportionment
RATIONALE: Apportionment, under California Labor Code §4663, refers to the
process of allocating permanent disability between the industrial injury and pre-existing
or subsequent non-industrial conditions. QMEs are required to provide a detailed
apportionment analysis based on causation.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUESTION 6
Under the AMA Guides 5th Edition, Whole Person Impairment (WPI) is defined as:
A. The percentage of body function lost due to injury relative to the total body
B. The percentage of earning capacity lost due to the injury
C. The total pain and suffering experienced by the claimant
