Legislation Would Give QMEs a Big Boost in Pay

A bill that would give a pay raise of at least 50% to physicians performing workers’ comp medical-legal evaluations has been introduced in the California Legislature. Assembly Bill 1832 was introduced Thursday by Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, and co-authored by Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes, D-San Bernardino. It is sponsored by the California Society of Industrial Medicine and Surgery, or CSIMS, and is intended to address the issue of qualified medical evaluators dropping out of the workers’ comp system. One factor in the QME exodus is that the Division of Workers&rs...