Long-standing practice ruled illegal

• In a ruling that affects how all appealed workers’ comp cases are handled in California, the Second District Court of Appeal says the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board’s long-standing “grant-for-study” practice is illegal.
• The DCA ruled the procedure is an unauthorized way to extend the 60-day statutory deadline for acting on a petition for reconsideration.
• The court, however, agreed that the WCAB is not required to issue a final ruling on the merits of the petition within 60 days.
• “Statutory language negates the Petitioners’ argument to the contrary,” the court wrote.
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Senate bill boosts Fees for claimants’ evaluating physicians a

• A Senate bill was recently amended to increase the maximum workers’ comp fees for evaluating physicians for claimants.
• The amendment also expands the circumstances for which physician legal fees are permitted.
• The bill set the maximum fees of evaluating physicians for claimants for their written reports, whether for the need for treatment evaluations or permanency exams, at $1,000.00.
• This is an increase of $400 from the previous $600.00 allotment.
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Workers’ comp steady despite inflation

• State and local government workers’ compensation stayed steady at 4.9%  annually at the end of the first and second quarters.
• Total compensation for civilian and private industry workers was up 4.5% over the past year, a step down from the 4.8% annual rate reported at the end of the first quarter.
• The personal consumption expenditures index rose 3 percent from June 2022 to June 2023, down from a 3.8% annual increase in May.
• Core PCE, which excludes more volatile food and energy costs, cooled from 4.6 percent year-over-year in May to 4.1% in June.
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Unpaid leave for health screenings

• Lousiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a law that provides unpaid leave for employees in Louisiana to receive genetic testing and preventive cancer screening.
• The act requires employees to satisfy numerous criteria to qualify for the leave while adding to an employer’s posting and notice obligations to employees of their newly created leave rights.
• To qualify for leave, employees must provide adequate notice and schedule the leave at a time that will not unduly burden the employer.
• The new law becomes effective on August 1, 2023.
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