As late August torpor sets in, go make yourself a Negroni, put your feet up, fire up Horace Silver on the stereo and treat yourself to some of the latest stats from the good folks over at CWCI, the California Workers’ Compensation Institute.
Today CWCI has released a new study on California workers’ compensation temporary disability benefit costs.
Not surprisingly, the average number of paid TD days at 12 months and 24 months post-injury fell somewhat in the years after the 2004 reforms but has been trending up since 2008.
But the trend does not appear earth-shattering. In 2009, for example, the average number of TD days paid at 12 months was 102.5 versus 109.2 in 2004. The average adjusted TD paid was $6,050 at 12 months in 2009 versus $5,436 in 2005.
After 2008 workers can receive a maximum of 104 weeks of TD over a 5 year period from the date of injury, of course. From 2004 to 1/1/08 workers were limited to 104 weeks of TD from when TD commenced, meaning when TD was first paid.
In Sacramento a bill has been under consideration (AB 947) which would allow TD to be paid up to 240 weeks under some circumstances .
AB 947 would include language allowing payment of TD up to 240 weeks where a primary treating physician, AME or QME indicated that further treatment was required for the patient to become permanent and stationary.
Employers are concerned about the costs of the bill. The bill has been placed in the Appropriations Committee suspense file, but like other bills under late session consideration, could be moved or could be dead.
The current version of AB 947 can be seen here:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bil … en_v96.pdf
An analysis of AB 947 is available here:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bil … _comm.html
The CWCI research report can be found here:
http://www.cwci.org/research.html
Stay tuned.
Julius Young
www.boxerlaw.com
www.workerscompzone.com
Category: Understanding the CA WC system
510.835.8870