En Banc WCAB Rules on When Worker Can Get New QME Panel

The Workers' Compensation Appeals Board on Wednesday issued an en banc ruling that a worker who brings successive claims for injuries to the same body part does not need to return to the same panel qualified medical evaluator for each of his claims. In February, the WCAB addressed when an applicant may obtain a new panel of QMEs in an en banc opinion in Navarro v. City of Montebello. The case had come up to the board on a petition for removal as to the validity of a Department of Industrial Relations administrative rule governing when a worker had to return to a QME he ...