Our Platform
The Workers' Compensation Action Network supports a four-pronged platform for achieving the goals of efficiency, cost-effectiveness and fairness:
1. Protect the Successful Legislative Reforms
The legislative reforms adopted between 2002 and 2004 have worked as intended: Benefit levels for injured workers were increased and are being delivered more promptly, abuses and waste associated with medical treatment were curbed, litigation has declined, and the administration of the system is more efficient. As a result of these reforms, injured workers are back to work quicker and in higher numbers. At the same time, jobs have been saved due to the reduction in costs to private employers, cities, counties and school districts.
WCAN supports the reforms and opposes efforts to roll back these successful reforms in the California Legislature and the courts.
2. Address the Problem of Increasing Medical Costs
Medical costs began to increase in recent years and are now well above pre-reform levels. Since 2005, medical costs have increased nearly 50 percent due to a wide variety of causal factors. Although there is no consensus on how to control these costs, the Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC) is implementing a 12-point plan to improve monitoring and take action through regulations to control medical costs. This plan includes revising medical treatment guidelines, closing costly loopholes and making the medical review process more efficient.
WCAN supports the DWC's plan to control workers' compensation medical costs, but will evaluate specific regulations as they are proposed.
3. Preserve the Legislature's Intent for "Objective" Disability Ratings
Precedent-setting decisions issued in 2009 (Ogilvie and Almaraz-Guzman) now allow doctors and lawyers to challenge components of the post-reform formula for measuring impairment and setting Permanent Disability (PD) awards. The Legislative Analyst's Office predicts that these rulings will increase costs by more than $800 million and result in more litigation and subjectivity in PD ratings, which were the defining characteristics of the pre-reform system.
WCAN supports maintaining the objective formula for rating permanent disability. If these court rulings are not overturned on appeal, WCAN supports clarifying the law to prevent the types of legal challenges that would place subjectivity and inconsistency back into the PD system and increase costs.
4. Adjust PD Benefits
Since 2005, the DWC has collected data for the purpose of revising the post-reform Permanent Disability Rating Schedule. Its data show that PD benefits are still inequitably paid among different injury types and could better reflect the actual wage loss of injured workers.
WCAN supports adjusting PD benefits based on data collected by the DWC to make benefits more equitable and more directly tied to injured workers' wage losses. Any adjustment that increases overall PD benefits levels should be accompanied by cost-saving measures so that jobs are not put at risk by higher workers' compensation costs. Any adjustment must also address the impact on PD benefits from recent court rulings.
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"California's reforms in 2003 and 2004 trimmed billions of dollars out of an inefficient and overly expensive workers' comp system. Employers' insurance premiums dropped from about $6.45 per $100 of payroll in 2003 to an average of $2.25 now."
- Riverside Press-Enterprise, "Comp Miscue"
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