Molly Hillis
Ms. Hillis is chief consultant to the California Senate Committee on Industrial Relations. Until late 1993 she was principal staff liaison to the Assembly Committee on Finance, Insurance, and Public Investment, which drafted the seven workers' compensation reform bills enacted last July.
Since passage of the worker's compensation (WC) reform package last summer, the state Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC), in the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), has been busy drafting regulations covering every aspect of the revised laws. Of central importance are regulations pertaining to medical-legal procedures, vocational rehabilitation, and certification and operation of managed health care organizations (HCOs and other extended-care providers). Individually and collectively, these regulations provide a great deal of clarification as to the nature and application of the reform laws.
The most important action still pending is a sizable increase in DWC staffing to implement the various provisions of the reform. A formal request by DIR for more than 250 new positions is currently under consideration in the Senate Budget Committee.
Otherwise, the regulation-drafting process is coming to a close. Initial disagreement about the role of the state Department of Corporations in certifying HCOs and other managed care organizations has been resolved; three types of entity have respectively different routes to certification. Confusion about medical-legal reporting provisions has also been substantially reduced. Few regulatory issues remain, although many administrative procedures are yet to be developed.
As of August 1, managed health care organizations will be eligible for certification to start providing WC-related services. So the onset of the more significant aspects of the workers' compensation reform is not far off. Evaluation of the impact of the reforms will have to await accumulation of the record of rate filings, claims, and handling of disputed cases involving injuries after January 1, 1994. Since the DWC system is still processing cases originating before this year, compilation of data on cases affected by the reform will take a while.