Apportionment Reform Bill Advances Over Employer Opposition
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Tagged in: California Coalition on Workers’ Compensation
More Presumption Bills
The Senate Labor, Public Employment, and Retirement committee advanced without opposition a bill to expand an existing workers’ comp presumption for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It will provide the presumption to more public safety officers and others involved in emergency response. Legislators also amended another presumption bill to expand coverage and yet another to make …
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Abuse Of Copy Service Rules
Employers and copy service providers over the years have aired a litany of complaints against each other over alleged billing and payment abuses. The state’s adoption of a new copy service fee schedule in 2015 eliminated some of the acrimony. But comments on the state’s proposed new workers’ comp copy service fee schedule update show …
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DWC Accepting Comments About Copy Service Fee Regs
The Division of Workers’ Compensation is taking another run at updating California’s copy service fee schedule. The agency is seeking comments on a slightly revised, year-old proposal via its informal public forum process. The update proposes the first increase in the flat rate paid for copy services – from $180 to $210 – since the …
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Three COVID-19 Presumption Bills Advance
Three bills proposing to create presumptions that cases of COVID-19 are a compensable consequence of work cleared key policy committees. However, there are still major, unresolved issues, such as the presumption’s scope and duration. One of the bills, AB 196 by Assemblyman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), initially sought a conclusive presumption of compensability, but it …
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One Presumption Bill Advances, Another Fails
The Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement committee advanced SB 1159, authored by committee chair Senator Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), and co-authored by Assembly Insurance Committee Chair Assemblyman Tom Daly (D-Anaheim). The idea is to create a COVID-19 presumption for public and private sector workers. The committee rejected a broader bill for a private sector …
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Emergency QME Telehealth Rules Approved
The Office of Administrative Law approved emergency regulations to allow qualified medical evaluators (QMEs) to provide remote med-legal evaluations as long as certain conditions are met. The agency received pushback from the workers’ comp community on the proposed requirements, but the regulations were approved for temporary use with only minor modifications. The proposed regulations were …
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New WCAB Rules In Effect For 2020
The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) completed an update to its rules of practice and procedure in the waning days of 2019. The changes become effective on January 1, 2020. It appears to have caught the community and lawyers off guard. The final regulations include language that faced strong pushback by industry representatives concerned that …
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