The California Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would reduce time periods for employers to reject workers compensation claims and increase liability for medical treatment. S.B. 335, which passed in a 29-10 vote, would shorten the window an employer has…
A bill that would have extended past 2023 California’s rebuttable presumption for health care workers who contract COVID-19 at work was placed in the state Senate’s inactive file Thursday. Existing law, until Jan. 1, 2023, creates a rebuttable presumption of…
California is set to fully reopen in less than two weeks and do away with virtually all mask and social distancing requirements for vaccinated people. But officials who regulate workplaces in the state aren’t ready to go that far and…
The demand for COVID-19 shots has stalled in the U.S., prompting some employers to implement mandates to get their staff fully vaccinated. However, experts warn that under such mandates, injuries or illnesses reported by employees from the vaccine can lead…
Legislation intended to increase injured California workers’ access to medical care by requiring the state to create a medical provider network as an alternative to private networks that render 90% of California workers’ compensation treatment would significantly increase medical costs…
A piece of California legislation to establish a statewide medical provider network for employees is raising a few eyebrows. Assembly Bill 1465 would require the administrative director of the state’s workers’ compensation system to establish a statewide medical provider network,…
The California Office of Administrative Law on Tuesday approved proposed changes to the state Division of Workers Compensation’s medical-legal fee schedule, which substantially overhauled the current reimbursement system for workers comp evaluations. All medical-legal valuations occurring on or after April…
A new study shows that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) now account for more than one-third of all drugs dispensed to injured workers in California, triple the proportion for opioids. A study from the California Workers’ Compensation Institute released on Wednesday also…
A decline in non-COVID-19-related workers compensation in California last year was offset by claims stemming from the disease, according to data presented Thursday. Overall, the state saw a 26.4% drop in non-COVID-19 claims when comparing data from March 2019 to…
Workers’ compensation insurers aren’t getting the large aggregate volumes of COVID-related claims projected during the early months of the pandemic, but different data sources give varying readouts on developments for individual U.S. states and classes of workers. In fact, while…