Latest news by Julius Young in the Workers Comp Zone, published May 30, 2019.

From the article:
"AB 5 passed out of the California Assembly on May 29 and is now headed to the California Senate.

It’s a bill that would codify the ABC employment test used in California Supreme Court Dynamex case. In a recent post “Hard to Define”, I explored the background of several legislative approaches re defining employment status in a gig economy era:
http://www.workerscompzone.com/2019/05/06/hard-to-define/

The Assembly vote on AB 5 was 59 to 15, with 6 not voting.

While there will likely have to be further changes to AB 5 when it hits the California Senate, clearly the bill has momentum.
The stakes are enormous for some of the gig economy companies. The recent Wall Street debut of Uber and Lyft  was underwhelming, and passage of AB 5 could be a substantial if not fatal blow to the business model of some lesser gig economy platforms.

Passage would ensure that many more workers are covered under California’s workers’ compensation laws.

A research publication by Dr. Steven D. Feinberg, M.D., M.S., M.P.H.

From the introduction: "This article addresses prevention and management of work injury claims that result in a bad outcome for the injured worker and considerable costs to the payer. I examine the genesis of these claims and how the concerned parties, inadvertently or otherwise, contribute to their development and growth. I place special emphasis on the ways attorneys contribute to a positive or negative outcome for the injured worker and the claim."
Link to full article here.

by Mariellen Blue, national director of case management at Genex Services who specializes in nursing, case management and utilization review.  Published April 9, 2019 on the Risk & Insurance website.

From the introduction: "Delayed recovery is a challenge coming to the forefront of workers’ comp. It’s defined as a lack of anticipated functional recovery in a medically reasonable period of time. Recently, many organizations have been seeking new ways — whether through telephonic or field case management services — to identify injured employees who are at risk for delayed recovery."
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Link to full PDF article here.

by Dr. Vanila M. Singh, M.D., MACM. Published May 10, 2019.

"Summary: Dr. Vanila Singh explains the work of the Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force." 

​Link to full interview with Dr. Vanila Singh on the task force's work here. 

May 15, 2019 Newsline Update

From the article: "The Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) has updated its EAMS system to require validation of uniform assigned names (UANs) when users e-file documents. Filers will receive an error if the document contains a faulty UAN, so they can correct the issue immediately. The new procedure is expected to reduce errors and processing delays."

The Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) has said in a unanimous decision that the nature of an injury to a California worker — including those that may be severe or catastrophic — is an issue to be determined by a judge.  Read the full decision here.

by Dr. Robert Weinmann, MA - May 9, 2019 (Weinmann Report)

In its original form AB 1107 was supposed to give relief to injured workers who were being wrongly denied access to treatment. It was supposed to ease the administrative burden on treating physicians whose time for patient care was being diluted by unreasonable requests for documentation to entertain Utilization Review (UR). The main thrust of AB 1107 was to facilitate treatment by primary treating physicians by exempting them from UR under specific circumstances. This plank has now been removed and replaced by language that may actually increase legal costs.