The LA Times' Mark Lifsher reports on the Brigham study which shows that permanent disability awards will be cut more than 50% under the new permanent disability rating schedule. "[Brigham's findings] give new ammunition to Senate Democrats who want to reopen the debate over the best way to fix the $22-billion-a-year system. Last year's overhaul was largely orchestrated by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who...
A recent report in the Sacramento Bee states (link unavailable): "Not too many small businesses have received reductions," Garamendi told a packed hearing room Thursday at the Insurance Department's offices on Fremont Street. "The insurance industry wants to fatten its profit margin. We are in the process of careful monitoring where the insurance companies are going with their premiums and their costs." So what...
Read more about Garamendi says premium reductions not fast enough...
Just received a defense doctor's report which rated approximately 9% under the new schedule and 16% under the old schedule. This may not seem like much difference, after all it is only 7 percentage points. But it is nearly 50% less in the raw rating . The dollar value is $7200 for the 9% and $14,050 for the 16%. Now this is a 2004...
Does anyone think that having an FBI warning on DVDs stops pirates from ripping off DVDs and people from buying the "stolen" material? Doesn't this seem like a huge waste of time and energy? And what about the workers' compensation fraud warnings? "Making a false claim for worker's compensation, etc., etc." Does this cut down on fraud? Does anything cut down on fraud? This...
The California Labor Federation has brought suit to overturn the new permanent disability schedule put forth by Administrative Director, Andrea Hoch. The suit claims that Hoch ignored the law when she did not utilize empirical data prepared by a Southern California think tank. The data was supposed to compensate injured workers for the loss of earnings capacity caused by their injury. Read the entire...
Read more about Labor group sues over new permanent disability schedule
In a recent radio address the Governor claimed that job figures show that California is making an economic comeback. He credits the workers' compensation reforms for reducing the cost of doing business in California. Only one problem, the premium reductions have not yet hit the employer's pocketbooks...You can read the Governor's propaganda here >>> (link unavailable).
Andrea Hoch is approved by the State Senate as the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation. This is the person who has instituted the draconian permanent disability schedule which fabricates out of thin air the "loss of future earnings" for injured workers as a factor of disability. The result: 50-70% cuts in permanent diability awards. Injured workers are being shafted on the...
The embattled administrative director of the California Division of Workers' Compensation, Andrea Hoch, was approved by the Senate Rules Committee and will go before the entire State Senate for a vote. Ms. Hoch has been serving as the acting director and unless ratified, here 1 year term will expire on May 3. There are rumors of a back-room deal between the Governor and committee...
Clifford D. Sweet III, former president of a defense attorneys groups, calls the new permanent disability schedule "socially unacceptable." He calls for the legislature to move quickly to fix the problem. Read the entire article here >>> (archived).
This USA Today article claims that the Governor is in retreat (archived). Now if the Democrats in the legislature could just get the guts to stand up to him and make the necessary changes to restore balance to the workers comp system, all would be right in the cosmos! One wonders if this article is just wishful thinking, or if the Governor has decided...