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| MEDIA
COVERAGE
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| December 20,
2006
|
WorkCompCentral |
| Return to : 3rd District Reviewing Retroactive PD Case |
A California appellate court has agreed to decide whether the new permanent disability rating schedule
can be applied retroactively to injuries before 2005. ... read more
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| December 13,
2006
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WorkCompCentral |
| CAAA Vows to Continue Challenge to Rating Schedule |
The California Applicants' Attorneys Association vowed Tuesday to keep up its legal battle against "deep
cuts in injured workers' permanent disability compensation" approved by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
administration. ... read more
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| December 12,
2006
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The Sacramento Bee |
| Dan Walters: Workers' comp clash will resume |
You heard almost nothing about it during the campaign, but workers' compensation -- the very
contentious system that deals with job-related illnesses and injuries -- was a powerful factor in
the duel between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Democratic challenger, Phil Angelides. ... read more
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| December 12,
2006 |
INJURED WORKERS’ ADVOCATES WILL CONTINUE
DISABILITY COMPENSATION CUTS:
Permanent Disability Compensation Cuts Not Legal or Appropriate
SACRAMENTO – Advocates for injured workers today said they would continue to press their fight challenging the Schwarzenegger Admnistration’s deep cuts in injured workers’ permanent disability compensation. The advocates for Californians injured on the job responded to a Workers Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) decision last week. ... read more |
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| December 6,
2006
|
L.A.
Times |
| State Pushed to Revise Workers' Comp Process |
New rules are proposed to penalize insurers that unfairly delay or deny medical treatment.
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is preparing to punish insurance companies that wrongly delay or deny medical care for workers hurt on the job. ... read more
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| December 6,
2006 | Capitol Weekly |
Juan Vargas, former Assembly Insurance Committee
chairman, takes job with Safeco
By John Howard
Juan Vargas, a San Diego-area Assembly member who served four years as
chairman of the Assembly Insurance Committee, is a new vice president in
California for Safeco, a Seattle-based company that handles auto, home and
business coverage. ... read more |
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| October 22, 2006 | San Francisco Chronicle |
| Altering the Workers' Comp System |
Reform cut costs 60% in just 2 years but a loophole may be delaying necessary treatments for patients ... read more |
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| October 17, 2006 | L.A. Times |
Workers' Comp Gains Haven't Eased the Pain
of Tough Cases SACRAMENTO
-
Two years after California overhauled its workers'
compensation program, costs paid by employers have been sliced in half and profits for insurers have soared ...read more |
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September 19, 2006 |Schwarzenegger vetoes benefit increase for disabled workers
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation Tuesday that would have doubled benefits for newly
disabled workers, contending the bill would have undercut "many of the economic gains now powering California's
economy." ... read more
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| February
10, 2006 | The Mercury News |
| Study
finds
disabled
workers
losing
benefits
under
new
systemSACRAMENTO
-
Gov.
Arnold
Schwarzenegger's
overhaul
of
the
workers'
compensation
system
has
saved
California
employers
billions
of
dollars
over
the
last
two
years,
but
it
also
has
led
to
a
significant
drop
in
benefits
paid
to
disabled
workers,
according
to
a
new
report...read
more |
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| January 2, 2006 |The Sacramento Bee
|
| But critics charge cost-cutting has gone too far, and benefits and medical
care are being compromised ...read more |
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| December
28,
2005
|
The
Press
Democrat |
| Report:
Workers'
Comp
Laws
Hinder
Treatment |
| A
package
of
laws
adopted
last
year
to
reduce
the
cost
of
treating
injured
workers
in
California
have
created
a
system
that
is
hostile
to
doctors
and
harmful
to
patients,
according
to
a
new
report
by
a
state
doctors'
group...read
more |
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| January
3,
2006
|
The
Press
Democrat |
| Insurers
must
clean
up
their
acts
-
or
risk
new
reforms |
| An
injured
worker
shouldn't
have
to
wait
weeks
for
treatment.
Yet,
according
to
a
study
by
the
California
Medical
Association,
treatment
of
patients
in
the
state's
workers'
compensation
system
is
often
delayed
-
sometimes
for
months...read
more |
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| November
1,
2005 |
| Doctors criticize workers' comp Medical association survey finds many plan to cut services. Fed up with costly red tape and delayed reimbursements by insurers, doctors surveyed by the California Medical Association vow to cut back or stop treating injured workers in the wake of sweeping changes to the state workers' compensation system...read
more |
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| November
2,
2005 |
| Workers' comp frustrates doctors Paperwork problems add up SACRAMENTO - California physicians face frustrating roadblocks in getting treatment for injured workers, and many doctors are planning to limit or abandon workers' compensation practices as a result, according to a California Medical Association report...read
more |
| ------- |
| November
1, 2005 |
| Workers' Comp Changes Hurting Treatment, Medical Study Finds Insurance carriers are interfering with cases by denying or underpaying claims, doctors contend. SACRAMENTO — Injured workers in California are being denied needed medical care and frustrated doctors are threatening to stop treating victims of on-the-job accidents, an influential physicians' group contends in a new report on the recent overhaul of the state's workers' compensation system...read
more |
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| August
19, 2005 |
“...
The
dramatic
drop
in
workers'
comp
costs
is
largely
coming
out
of
the
pockets
of
disabled
workers
and
their
attorneys.”
(read
more...click
here)
Political
Columnist
Dan
Walters
Sacramento
Bee,
August
9th,
2005 |
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| July
17,
2005 |
| Workers'
comp
reform
succeed,
but
leave
some
in
a
world
of
hurt
--
Landmark reforms won by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to control fraud and waste that were driving up runaway costs in the workers' compensation system have proven to be a major success, bringing down premiums and reducing costs to business and government, officials said. Still, there are persistent complaints that some people who suffered legitimate work-related injuries are not getting proper care because of efforts to prevent needless doctor visits. Because he got hurt on the job, Alan Becker can barely walk and spends most days confined to a chair. Dave Hiserodt lost his apartment and lives in a hotel. Joan Rascoe hasn't been back to the job she loved since 1988...read more |
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| July
10,
2005 |
| Modesto
Bee |
| A day later, they amputated a few inches above the knee. But the coldness was just beginning, as Kyle Van Houten would learn. First came the depression he experienced while having to accept that his leg was gone. Then came the phantom pain and sensations that amputees are known to feel. And finally, a different kind of coldness — the complicated new workers compensation law lauded by insurers and employers and lambasted by worker rights groups and
attorneys...Read more here |
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| June
16,
2005 |
| INJURED WORKERS, CONSUMER LEADERS DEMAND THAT INSURANCE GIANT
AIG: Stop Cheating Injured Workers and Taxpayers SACRAMENTO and LOS ANGELES, CA - Injured workers and consumer advocates today demanded that the world’s largest insurer,
AIG, “stop cheating injured workers out of needed...read
more |
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| March 18, 2005 |
| Workers' Comp Rules Could Cut Benefits
58%, Study Finds Benefits for workers who are permanently disabled by on-the-job injuries could shrink by more than 50% under workers' compensation insurance regulations issued in January by the Schwarzenegger administration, according to an independent study done for the insurance
industry...read more |
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| Jan 3, 2004 |
| Associated Press |
|
Regulations
could affect benefits for disabled workers SACRAMENTO
- State officials have approved "very complicated and highly
controversial" emergency regulations that critics say will result in
big benefit cuts for disabled workers....read more
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| December 31, 2004 |
| LA Times |
|
Insurers
Are Edging Back to Comp Companies see some positive signs in the market
for workers' job-injury coverage. Insurance companies are tiptoeing into
California's workers' compensation market, betting that the overhaul of
the system for aiding victims of on-the-job injuries is creating profit
opportunities...read more |
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| December 16, 2004 |
| Associated Press |
|
 Doctor,
attorneys find widespread denial of care for workers A physician and an
attorneys' group said Thursday that efforts to overhaul California's
workers' compensation system have led to widespread denials of care for
employees who suffer job-related injuries...A Tracy couple, Conrad and
Sammie Sinclair, blamed their son Brandon's suicide last April on his
struggles with an insurer over workers' comp benefits. "He was denied
the basic care you would give to an animal, " Conrad Sinclair told
reporters...read more
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| December 8, 2004 |
| LA Times |
|
Workers'
Safety Net Is Full of Loopholes Yes, I did ask readers to send me their
horror stories involving the workers' compensation mess Gov.
Schwarzenegger claims to have fixed...read more |
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