State Works to Clarify Medical-Treatment Appeals

Planned changes in the Louisiana form that workers, their doctors and their attorneys use for appeals in disputed claims for medical treatment are part of an effort to clarify the new appeal procedure for those disputes, an attorney with the Office of Workers Compensation said on Friday.  The OWC will conduct a public hearing on the rule change for the appeal form on Sept. 27 in Baton Rouge. Use of the appeal form, 1009, already has begun, but Will Green, an assistant attorney general assigned to the OWC, said the form's use in its current form "has created some confusion."Green said ...