I am on a plane to Orange County this morning, headed to the California Coalition on Workers’ Compensation (CCWC) Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA. I am scheduled to appear on a bloggers panel Wednesday with some of my usual cohorts in crime.
We’re putting the band back together.
Mark Walls will once again moderate this affair – if what you call moderation is actually possible with this crew. David Depaolo and Peter Rousmaniere are the other regulars returning to the panel, as well as newbie to this traveling road show (what we in the conference blogger panel business call “fresh meat”), California attorney Julius Young, author of the venerable Workers’ Comp Zone blog.
As noted I am flying to the event. I just got an email from Rousmaniere, who apparently is on a train bound from Chicago. Depaolo, our resident surfer dude and LA area resident is driving, unless they’ll let him land his plane at Disneyland. Not sure about Mr. Young, but Walls will no doubt arrive with his normally panache-ious combination of Private G5, limo and turnip truck. This is definitely going to be a “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” type of event.
We are all gathering to talk about California workers’ comp. That should fill a few minutes. Trying to figure out who has to buy dinner will probably absorb the rest of the time.
California is in the throes of implementation of yet another round of significant reform, and it gives those of us on the panel ample fodder for discussion and proselytization. All of the pieces of SB863 have not yet fleshed out, so we cannot accurately surmise everything that will have to be fixed from the last round of repairs. But we are pretty sure there will be more repairs. California’s legislature, it seems, is incapable of fixing things in workers’ comp without leaving loose parts and equipment strewn about the garage.
Someone is bound to trip and fall over something.
So far Copy Fee Schedules, as well as the Independent Medical Review and Utilization Review processes seem to be generating the most angst in the state. That, and of course, it feels like half the medical community is under indictment or facing massive tort claims from the Drobot case; something that has proven to be one of the largest medical fraud cases in history.
California comp remains one of the most complex and challenging systems in the nation, and even though there are positive trends occurring there, the challenges always seem to drown them out. Frankly, that is likely to continue until California legislators figure out that they must streamline and simplify, rather than continue to add complexity and confusion to the process.
So California bound we are to opine on the events of the day. I will likely report back on what I learn. Whatever the problems that state faces in workers’ comp, I am sure there is a solution. After all, there is nothing that another 183 pages of legislation and regulation cannot fix.