Title: Founder Law Offices of Saul Allweiss
Resume: Allweiss’ initial employment in workers’ comp was with Fremont Indemnity between 1976 and 1982. Allweiss’ next position was with the City of Long Beach, where he was claims officer from 1982 to 1985. After a year of self-employment, Allweiss began his career at Republic Indemnity Company of America. Allweiss’ last seven years at Republic involved a myriad of tasks. Allweiss has served on the California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) standing legal and claims committees, and he remains an ad hoc member of the legal committee. Allweiss has been an invited speaker at the annual meeting of the California Manufacturers’ Association, California Workers’ Compensation Defense Attorney Association, General Counsel Seminar of the Association of California Insurance Companies (ACIC) and, on three occasions, before the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association. Allweiss has been retained as a consultant on behalf of employers and insurers, serving on numerous ad hoc committees created by the administrative director of the Division of Workers’ Compensation, involved in the drafting of regulations, policy and procedure. Allweiss entered private practice in the year 2001 and in October 2002 opened his own firm, The Law Offices of Saul Allweiss.
Schools: Bachelor of science; University of Illinois, juris doctor; University of La Verne College of Law
Awards: Defense Attorney of the Year for 2006
Certifications: Certifications: Admitted to California Bar; June 1994, Licensed Administrator for Self-Insured Claims Administration
A prominent workers’ comp defense attorney in private practice in Southern California, Allweiss represents large self-insured clients such as Safeway. He began his career at Fremont Indemnity as a subrogation and claims specialist and did a stint at Republic Indemnity, where he served as claims counsel, among other things. Allweiss is particularly knowledgeable about the workers’ comp reforms of 2003 and 2004 and their impact on employers. He has spoken often on concerns related to apportionment, Medicare set-asides and return-to-work. He’s a common presence in the Capitol, providing his input on a number of issues.
What are the top three issues in California workers’ comp today?
The Almaraz/Guzman/Ogilvie cases and their effect on the calculation of permanent disability. Issues associated with medical care pertaining to utilization review and medical provider networks. Issues associated with the Electronic Adjudication Management System (EAMS).
Are we headed for a hard market, and if so, when will it come? How long should we expect it to last? What are the repercussions?
I am really not qualified to answer this question, but as an observer of the market, I believe that there is a hard market somewhere in the future, but I have absolutely no idea when it might come.
Are medical provider networks a help or a hindrance? How should they be improved?
Medical provider networks are really, in no way, a hindrance. There are some benefits that could be found in any medical provider network. The most efficient medical provider networks are the “boutique” MPNs. For now, the only entities that are using “boutique” MPNs are self-insured employers.
How should utilization review be improved?
The biggest improvement would come from a WCAB (or higher) decision on the issue of who would prevail in a dispute between a treating physician, AME, or QME making a provision for medical care that has no basis in evidence-based medicine versus utilization review that is completed timely and correctly, disputing treatment using evidence-based medicine.
What needs to be done to improve return-to-work?
While I am not sure what the answer might be, I think we now know that neither the supplemental job displacement benefit nor the 15% bump up/bump down put the proper incentives in place to make return-to-work effective.
What do you see, other than medical, as the next big cost driver?
Permanent disability benefits stemming from the Almaraz/Guzman/Ogilvie cases.
Is it realistic to deal for more cost-cutting reforms in exchange for increasing permanent disability benefits?
Possibly, if we can ensure that the calculation of permanent disability benefits are truly consistent and not subject to the “swings” that are caused by the Almaraz/Guzman/Ogilvie decisions.
Where do you see applicant attorneys focusing litigation in the future?
In light of the potential monetary recovery associated with a life pension or permanent and total disability award, litigation in those cases that are approaching 70% or 100% will have increasingly greater attention.
What role do you see workers’ comp playing in the Obama administration’s health care debate?
There is not any current correlation between the recent federal legislation and California workers’ comp. In the long run, that might occur, but I would not foresee anything in this regard occurring within the next five years or more. Possibly, in the very long term, there might be a basis for integration of group health benefits with workers’ comp medical benefits.
What is the effect of more than $1 billion in payroll being absorbed by the self-insurance groups?
There are very significant concerns here and we have to wait and see if the self-insured groups can absorb the losses once the claims start to develop.
What does the future hold now that Almaraz/Guzman/Ogilvie have been reconsidered?
Uncertainty will prevail until we eventually obtain rulings from the Supreme Court on these matters, which probably is at least three years into the future.
Governor Schwarzenegger signed bills maintaining the right of injured workers to predesignate their own physicians (SB 186), tweaking utilization, and limiting the denial of benefits (AB 1093). What impact could these, if any, have on costs?
Predesignation has never had any significant effect on costs and I don’t foresee any changes in response to the passage of SB 186.
Where does the greatest liability lie in Medicare set-asides?
I believe that it is the issues that are associated with the aging work force causing Medicare set-aside allocations to be used on an increasingly greater number of cases.