To ensure injured workers' access to care, California has laws governing Medical Provider Networks (MPNs). Zurich Insurance North America continues to treat those laws as optional. Tesla Motors should pay close attention, because its injured workers bear the consequences.

California law allows insurers to establish an MPN that dictates which providers may treat each injured worker. California law requires all MPNs to maintain a webpage with a provider roster and contact information for Medical Access Assistants (MAAs) so that injured workers can find care, and providers know whom they are permitted to treat.

Zurich MPNs violate this law.

Zurich sent a provider an Explanation of Review (EOR) for treating a Tesla worker, indicating that the "ZSC SELECT MPN" applied to the worker. The California Division of Workers' Compensation (CA DWC) lists that MPN on its online MPN list; however, the web address on the list does not navigate to a compliant page, but to the home page of Zurich's marketing website.

That marketing website makes no mention of the ZSC Select MPN. It includes no provider roster or MAA contact information. An injured Tesla worker who follows this link cannot find a doctor, call an MAA, or get information on obtaining care. A provider cannot determine whether they are permitted to treat that worker.  Zurich has ignored its legal obligation and replaced it with a golf tournament sponsorship page.

In effect, it’s a barrier to medical treatment for Tesla’s workforce.

The last time daisyNews caught Zurich violating MPN laws, its Senior Vice President dismissed the violations as a "clerical error." Worse, the CA DWC let that excuse stand. Tesla cannot rely on the agency to enforce the laws meant to protect its workers; it must demand compliance directly from Zurich, because, currently, injured Tesla employees are on their own.

Zurich's non-compliance goes beyond negligence, benefitting the insurer at the expense of the employer and its workforce.

Often, when workers can't navigate an MPN to find care (and doctors can’t determine whether they’re permitted to render care) treatment is delayed. Delayed treatment worsens injuries, lengthens claim duration, and increases medical costs. Higher medical costs ultimately mean that Zurich collects higher premiums from Tesla.

Tesla and its workforce deserve better. Unfortunately, the CA DWC doesn’t care.

Zurich EOR Cites Unverifiable MPN

Zurich issued the EOR below in response to the provider's bill for treating the injured Tesla employee. The EOR indicates that Zurich restricts this Tesla worker to the "ZSC SELECT MPN" with MPN ID number 2449.

In theory, providers can confirm that an MPN applies and that they are a member by looking the MPN up on the CA DWC MPN list. As shown below, the ZSC Select MPN is indeed an active MPN under ID number 2449.

But there's one glaring (if depressingly common) problem: the required "Website Address of MPN" listed by the CA DWC is the home page of a generic marketing site, in this case www.zurichna.com.

The page at www.zurichna.com features information on everything from auto insurance to the "Zurich Classic" golf tournament. While you might be able to see which PGA stars are hitting the links, you'll be hard-pressed to find a doctor eligible to treat an injured Tesla worker.

Tesla Should Be Concerned

When an employer like Tesla chooses an insurer, they are trusting that insurer to comply with state law. Zurich's track record suggests that trust may be misplaced.

daisyBill has documented Zurich's MPN non-compliance across multiple networks. In a prior case involving another Zurich MPN (#2385), daisyBill's formal petition to the CA DWC detailed serious violations, including an invalid MPN website, a non-functioning MAA phone number, and failure to update the provider roster for over two years.

As Tesla contends with Zurich’s approach to MPN compliance, here are the questions it should be asking:

• If Zurich can't maintain a functional MPN webpage, what else isn't it maintaining?
• How are Zurich's adjusters handling medical access for injured Tesla workers on a day-to-day basis?
• Are injured Tesla employees receiving the care they need, or are they quietly falling through cracks that Zurich helped create (and ultimately hiring attorneys to pursue benefits)?

California law places the duty of establishing and maintaining a compliant MPN squarely on the insurer. Tesla has every reason to demand accountability from the insurer it pays to ensure its workers' care.

Zurich: Racking Up the CA Labor Code Violations

Not for the first time, Zurich fails to satisfy California Labor Code Section 4616 in several important ways:

1. Provider Rosters: § 4616(a)(4)(A)(i) requires every MPN to post a roster of all participating providers online, complete with contact information, and to share the web address where providers and injured workers can find that roster with the CA DWC (emphases ours):

"...every medical provider network shall post on its internet website a roster of all participating providers, which includes all physicians and ancillary service providers in the medical provider network, and shall update the roster at least quarterly. Every network shall provide to the administrative director the internet website address of the network and of its roster of participating providers."

Zurich shared www.zurichna.com with the CA DWC. An injured Tesla worker who visits that address will find travel protection, company news, and golf. They will not find a physician eligible to deliver care.

2. MPN Contact and MAA Information: § 4616(a)(4)(B) requires MPN websites to include contact information for the MPN and specifically for MAAs, which can identify eligible providers and schedule appointments for injured workers (emphases ours):

"Every medical provider network shall post on its internet website information about how to contact the medical provider network contact and medical access assistants…"

Once again, www.zurichna.com offers none of this; no MPN contact, no MAA information, no link to anything specific to the ZSC Select MPN. Without a functioning MAA tied to this MPN, Tesla's injured workers have no meaningful path to a physician.

3. Notification Requirement: § 4616(a)(4)(B) requires that the MPN website include information on "how to obtain a copy of any notification regarding the medical provider network that is required to be given to an employee…" Once again, www.zurichna.com fails the test.

Another "Clerical Error" From Zurich?

When daisyBill filed its formal Petition to Revoke MPN #2385, Zurich's response to the CA DWC characterized its violations as a "clerical error." In a November 10, 2025, response, signed under penalty of perjury by Senior Vice President Dave Boyle, Zurich wrote:

"Investigation revealed clerical errors on the Form DWC-7 attached to the Petition, including an incorrect MPN number and missing website information."

It takes one heckuva clerical error to submit a form with as many statutory violations as we documented, but the CA DWC declined to revoke the MPN; nor did the agency weigh in on whether the violations were truly the result of a "clerical error." Instead, the DWC instructed daisyBill to take the matter up directly with Zurich.

That is the laughable level of accountability that insurers face in California workers' comp. It exemplifies the compliance double standard that should outrage every provider in the state.

If a provider treats an injured worker outside the applicable MPN, they risk forfeiting reimbursement entirely. Meanwhile, injured workers (including Tesla's) have no idea where to find care, and doctors have no idea whether they're permitted to treat…all because Zurich is too "error"-prone to follow the law.

Zurich, however, risks nothing. When non-compliance delays care, claims grow longer and more expensive. When claims grow more expensive, premiums go up. Zurich doesn't absorb the cost of its own negligence; it can invoice it.

Tesla's employees get hurt doing real work. They deserve an insurer that follows the law, not one that profits by disregarding it.

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