Utilization Review

CA Employers Need to Know: Is It the Injury or the UR System?

Last year, California raised employers’ workers' comp premiums by 8.7% while other states continued to cut rates, some for over a decade straight. Across the nation, premiums...

CA DWC to Enact Useless New UR Regulations

The California Division of Workers’ Compensation (CA DWC) will enact new regulations to (theoretically) streamline authorization for injured workers’ care, effective April 1,...

Does CA Workers’ Comp Cause Secondary Psych Injuries?

New research illuminates a serious problem for injured workers: secondary psychological injuries resulting from the sheer hardship of navigating workers’ comp systems....

CA's "Cost Control" Mechanisms May Be the Most Expensive Parts of the Claim

Employers in California pay more for workers' comp coverage than in almost every other state, and the gap is widening. In our view, thereason isn't provider or ...

CA DWC's UR Audits: A Keyhole View of a Statewide Crisis

As early as 2016, California legislators recognized the potential for payers to abuse Utilization Review (UR), the process by which payers decide whether to deny or approve t...

CA Employers: Who Profits When the CA DWC Ignores the Law?

It's time to confront a fundamental problem with California's workers' compensation system.California employers are paying higher workers' comp premiums, even as rates...

CA DIR to Blow $1.25M On (Another) Questionable Comp Study

The California Division of Workers’ Compensation (CA DWC) is set to waste $1,250,000 in taxpayer dollars on a faulty “study” of non-existent data.The Department of Ins...

Labor: “Predatory” Sedgwick Is “a Menace to Workers”

Labor representatives are finally saying it out loud: Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc. is a “menace” to injured workers.Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 isn’t...

CO: DOWC Seeks Feedback on New Workers' Comp Law

Colorado’s Division of Workers’ Compensation (DOWC) will hold live “Listening Sessions” to discuss how to implement House Bill 25-1300.HB 25-1300 radically shifts the ...

CO: New Law Empowers Injured Workers & Doctors

Colorado is taking a sledgehammer to payer control over injured workers’ care. Governor Jared Polis signed House Bill 25-1300 into law in June. Starting in 2028...

Zurich: Vague Authorization Creates More Treatment Friction

Insurer Zurich North America offered a classic example of the bureaucratic absurdity that plagues California’s treatment authorization process, issuing a baffling, time-bound...

CA: Business Insider Falls for Insurer Propaganda

Business Insider published a cringy slop of insurer talking points, uncritically parroting insurers’ preferred narrative about the coming increase...