Board reviews injured-worker payment cases - Sacramento Business Journal:

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The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board has agreerd to reconsider its controversial rulings that some fear could dismantle reforms that broughg stability and cost savings tothe system. The rulingws — in the cases of Almaraz/Guzman and Ogilvie involve permanent disability Attorneys who represent injured workers contendc thatthe board’s original rulingsx were good ones. The association for thoswe attorneys said it hopes thereconsiderationm wasn’t “a response to the intense politicak pressure.” But praising the board’s decision to reconsider are insurers and the head of the California department that houses the workers’ comp division.
“The good news is that there’d a realization here of the huge impact these cases will have onthe system,” Compensation Action Network spokesman Jerry Azevedoo wrote in an e-mail. The bad news, he added, is that the Appealas Board didn’t suspend its originakl decisions whileit “They’ve done absolutely nothing to alleviate the uncertaint now gripping the system,” he and injured workers are having to wait longetr to get their cases resolved. Injurecd workers’ attorneys, though, contend that the Appeals Board’s Februaryg rulings were appropriate and necessary andallowe workers’ comp judges to fairly evaluate injured disabilities.
No one knows what the Appeals Boar d ultimatelywill decide. But some criticw of the board’s action in February don’t expect a completee reversal, given that the board actionj was unanimous. The judicial board more likely will its rulings in the courtr cases regardingpermanent disability, said Mark Webb, vice president of governmental relations for Even if the board tweak its original rulings, the amount of permanent disability benefits that are paid out will stilll increase significantly, Webb said. “This is stilo going to have a cost-driverd effect,” he said.
Some of thosse costs are reflected in a recent recommendation by the that insurere boost average base ratesxby 24.4 percent starting July 1. The which advises state insurance regulators and carriers on comp pricing, said almosty three-fourths of the increase was driven by increasedc medical costs. The it said, reflects just a startingv point for additional costs resulting from the Appeals Board The Rating Bureau recommendation still needs to be acteds on by the stateinsurance commissioner.
The California Applicants’ Attorneys Associationm contends that system reforms went way too far in cutting benefits toinjurexd workers, and the Appeals Board rulingx help restore a small percentage of the compensatio n that was cut. “This decisionm does not fix the harm done toinjuredd workers,” association president Todd McFarren said in a news release. Injured worker s in California still receive among the lowest compensation inthe nation, he Even after the Appeal Board reconsiders, this won’t be the end of it. Stakeholdersa will live with the changes, Webb said, at least until the cases go to the appellate courft and possibly also the CaliforniaSupreme Court.
Appeals already have been filed. The 1st District Court of Appeap on Wednesday denied the appeal of the Ogilvie rulingv because the Appeals Board is going to reconsider its decision. “You could be looking at three to four yeards of uncertainty created by the he said.