Workers' Compensation: The Rule of Law and The Media's Role

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

The Rule of Law and The Media's Role

Today's post is authored by David DePaolo and shared from workcompcentral.com

Those not living in California are befuddled by our system. Heck, even those living in California are befuddled...

Yesterday was also the start of the 21st annual California Division of Workers' Compensation Educational Conference in Los Angeles, CA, where the weather is a bit warmer than it is here in CT.

So too has the activity been a bit warmer in California - at the Educational Conference Acting Administrative Director Destie Overpeck gave an overview of what has been going on with the division since the directive of SB 863 to implement numerous changes to the system.

The list of work that the division has been engaged in is impressive, and demonstrates just how vast the changes were in SB 863:

New rules to reduce payments to ambulatory surgery centers from 120% of Medicare’s outpatient rate to 80%;
A new fee schedule for providers based on a Resource Based Relative Value Scale;
A lien fee system (currently partially in abeyance due to legal challenges which also adds to the division's work load);
New statute of limitations for lien filers;
New Independent Medical Review process and procedures;
New Independent Medical Bill review process and procedures;
Revised Medical Provider Network approval and renewal process and rules;
Pending fee schedule for copy services;New penalties for failures in notifications and standards for MPNs.

This is all in addition to the normal work load...