San Francisco, CA – On December 30, 2013, the Division of Workers’ Compensation filed the certificate of compliance for the independent medical review (IMR) regulations and the independent bill review (IBR) regulations, the last two sets of emergency regulations implementing SB 863, with the Office of Administrative Law (OAL). OAL has up to 30 working days to review the proposed regulations. The emergency regulations remain in effect until the certificate of compliance is filed with the Secretary of State.
Throughout 2013, DWC has focused on implementing SB 863, a comprehensive reform of the workers’ compensation system, improving benefits, expediting the medical dispute system, and making other administrative improvements.
DWC’s achievements in the past year include:
- Revised the Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Fee Schedule, reducing the payment from 120% to 80%.
- Revised the Inpatient Hospital Fee Schedule to reduce duplicate payments for spinal implant surgeries.
- Adopted the following regulations
- lien filing fee and activation fee,
- supplemental job displacement benefit (SJDB),
- qualified medical evaluation (QME),
- interpreter certification process,
- independent medical review (IMR), and
- independent bill review (IBR).
- Implemented the medical resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS) fee schedule that will go into effect as of Jan. 1, 2014.
- Began formal rulemaking for the predesignation/chiropractor primary treating physician regulations and to revise the medical provider network (MPN) regulations.
Source: CA DWC