Supreme Court to Issue Ruling on UR Providers' Malpractice Liability

The California Supreme Court will issue a decision today establishing whether utilization review physicians can be sued for malpractice. This unresolved question has been out in the ether ever since January 2016, when the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that the doctors who provide UR opinions have a provider-patient relationship with the workers whose treatments they are evaluating. According to the 4th Circuit, the relationship gives rise to a duty of care on the part of the doctors. The Supreme Court granted review of King v. CompPartners in April 2016, and it heard oral argument...