Cahill Law Office

11/01/2021

Were you injured on the job and need to know how to file a Workers' Compensation claim? Do you know what the entire process looks like?

On Monday, November 8, join the UFW Foundation and CAAA for a FACEBOOK LIVE event about all things workers' compensation. Together, they will provide answers to most frequently asked questions related to Workers' Compensation. En Español.

03/22/2021

CAAA has prepared a Community Resource Guide that lists resources by California counties. If you or someone you know needs help locating community assistance, start with a look at this guide.

We know that getting injured on the job can sometimes lead to drastic consequences. We've prepared a list of resources listed by county to help you find the services you need.

08/24/2020

Protect workers and vote

On November 3, California voters will be asked to approve a new employment classification through Proposition 22, a ballot initiative funded by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other app-based employers.

These companies want to create this new classification for their drivers so they don't have to pay for standard employee benefits & protections, including a minimum wage, paid sick leave, unemployment insurance & workers’ compensation.

Rather than comply with Assembly Bill 5, which requires these companies to classify their drivers as employees, they're hoping to convince voters to approve Proposition 22, and so far have poured over $110 million into their campaign.

03/13/2020

For injured workers settlements with a Medicare Set Aside, as of January 21, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a decision memo to provide coverage for acupuncture limited to the treatment of chronic low back pain

06/04/2018

The California Assembly passed a bill that would create a rebuttable presumption that people working for registered janitorial firms are employees and not contractors.

02/12/2018

California's Auditor General has been recognized as one of the nation's strongest oversight agencies. Last year, the Chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee, decided on an independent audit of fraud in the Workers' Compensation system.

Here is the Audit's break down of who is responsible:

Workers Filing False Claims $19 Million 2%

Employers Avoiding $133 Million 13.8%
Required Insurance

Medical Providers $812 Million 83.8%
Bilking The System

The full Auditor General's Report-

11/17/2017

California’s medical treatment guidelines will get a long-awaited refresh when the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine’s guidelines are officially incorporated.
Division of Workers’ Compensation Administrative Director signed an order incorporating 13 sections from the ACOEM guidelines into the Medical Treatment Utilization Schedule. The director’s order will make ACOEM’s recommendations presumptively correct on the issue of the extent and scope of treatment provided to injured workers on or after Dec. 1, 2017.
One chapter the division is adopting is already out of date in the context of regulations that require the guidelines to be updated every five years. Providers can use other DWC rules, including the “hierarchy of evidence” approach to rebutting the presumption that the MTUS is correct by citing more recent studies. - WorkCompCentral

03/13/2017

http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/kcrw-investigates/the-future-of-work-denial-of-care

Get hurt at work? File for workers comp. That's the fund that takes care of you if you have a job-related injury.

02/09/2017

Excerpt from "Risky Business: What happens when gig workers get injured on the job" by Karen Foskay

Independent contract work comes in many forms. Manny Vasquez, 26, was working as a bike messenger when he ended up on the hood of a car after being hit at a Long Beach intersection. The crash caused a torn ligament in his knee and required surgery. Vasquez didn’t have health insurance.

When it came time to pay for the medical treatment, he applied for workers’ compensation only to find out he didn’t qualify because he was an independent contractor. It was a shock. Other than paying more in taxes, Vasquez had no idea what the difference was between an employee and an independent contractor.

“It’s underhanded because it’s not highlighted when you take the job. Nobody mentions these things,” said Vasquez, who spent six months staying with family and friends while recovering from his injuries.

“The problem is people taking these gig jobs are not fully informed on what coverage they have or in these cases, what coverage they don’t have,” notes Paul Leigh, a health economist at UC Davis.

The gig economy is growing, and is predicted to employ as much as 50 percent of all workers by 2030. However, the impacts of independent contractors on the workers’ compensation system are not fully known.

“This is an important area for academic research and we haven’t done the work we should have on independent contract work and workers’ compensation claims and how these influence overall workers’ compensation in the past 15 years,” said Leigh.

Leigh is concerned employers are increasingly avoiding financial responsibilities by labeling workers as independent contractors and forcing them to incur all of the risks with no safety nets. When contract workers get injured and can’t cover the costs, it can be the taxpayers – not the employers – who are stuck with the bills, said Leigh.

Hospitals recoup the expenses by raising the premiums on those who are insured. Taxpayer funded programs like Medicaid become the substitute for unemployment insurance when independent contractors are too injured to work.

Leigh questions why this shifting of the financial burden isn’t seen as a fraudulent maneuver on behalf of insurers and employers.

“It can be the case that the employer may not classify the worker properly or may not record the injury properly. So I think the word fraud applies to employers and insurance companies equally as much as it applies to injured workers.”

See more at curious.kcrw.com

12/29/2016

On the first day of the 2017-18 Legislative Session in Sacramento, freshman Assemblywoman Eloise Reyes (D-San Bernardino) wasted no time getting to work.
"Survivors of the San Bernardino attacks deserve better than being caught in the web of workers' comp bureaucracy," said Assemblywoman Reyes in a statement. "Medical care should first and foremost be about meeting a patient's needs."
Before she was even officially sworn-in, Reyes held a press conference announcing her intent to help victims of the December 2, 2015 terrorist attack in her district, San Bernardino. As soon as she was sworn-in, she filed Assembly Bill 44, which exempts medical treatment for survivors of acts of terror or violence in the workplace from Utilization Review and Independent Medical Review.

09/08/2016

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Workers-Comp-Drags-Out-Medical-Care-Injured-Workers-and-their-Doctors-Say-390979441.html

Some California’s injured workers say the system that is supposed to get them back to work is actually making their recoveries longer and more complicated. A California Highway Patrol officer injured in...