Medical Marijuana Pioneer California Could Remove it From Accepted WC Treatment

• California officials are accepting public comment through mid-March on a plan that would remove medical marijuana as an accepted treatment for injured employees in workers’ compensation cases.
• The change would effectively prevent doctors in such cases from recommending marijuana and end any compensation to pay for cannabis medications.
• California was the first state to pass a medicinal marijuana law back in 1996, but in the years since, more than 35 states have made the same move.
• The change being considered by the California Division of Workers’ Compensation is reportedly based on recently updated guidelines from the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine that say cannabinoids are “not recommended” for treatment of chronic, acute or postoperative pain and separately advising against cannabinoid use by safety-critical workers.
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Georgia Court Rules Claim Can’t Be Denied Over Undisclosed Previous Injury

• A Georgia Court of Appeals has found that undisclosed previous injuries aren’t necessarily a defense — the so-called Rycoff defense — against paying a workers’ compensation injury claim.
• “In the fraudulent-inducement-to-contract context, a party’s failure to rescind or repudiate the agreement after learning of the fraudulent representation acts as a waiver of that defense,” a three-judge panel of the court wrote last week in McKay vs. Inalfa Roof Systems.
• The Georgia Board of Workers’ Compensation, an administrative law judge and a trial court had erred in relying on the Rycroft defense to uphold the roofing manufacturer’s denial of a 2021 injury claim, the appeals court said.
• Under a 1989 Georgia Court of Appeals case, an employer can deny a claim based on Rycroft if the injured employee lied about his medical condition on his job application and the new injury relates to the employee’s misrepresentation.
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Chesapeake Employers’ Doubles 2025 Rate Descrease

• Chesapeake Employers’ Insurance has filed for an 8% net rate decrease with the Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA) effective April 1, 2025.
• Maryland’s nonprofit insurer of last resort also announced its largest policyholder dividend of $55 million for 2025.
• This marks the eighth consecutive year that the carrier has declared dividends.
• Between 2018 and 2025, Chesapeake will have returned $175 million to Maryland employers, it said.
• Last year, nearly 97% of the company’s policyholders qualified for a dividend.
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