Committee Approves Proposal to Exhaust $120M Fund Annually

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Assembly Insurance Committee on Wednesday passed a bill that would require the Department of Industrial Relations to fully exhaust the $120 million appropriated each year to provide supplemental benefits to disabled applicants who don’t return to work, despite concerns of some that doing so would increase costs for employers. At the same time, bills that would have eliminated a coverage exemption for day laborers and extend the duration of temporary disability benefits in the case of treatment denials likely died as authors pulled the m...