WCIRB Analysis: New Fee Schedule Could Increase Overall Med-Legal Payments by 22%

Medical-legal payments in California will likely increase by 22% under the Division of Workers’ Compensation’s recently updated fee schedule, according to preliminary estimates from the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau. WCIRB researchers used the new Medical-Legal Fee Schedule rates to modify recent historical med-legal data to calculate the annual estimates, which include a projected 11% increase in record review costs, said Julia Zhang, the bureau’s vice president of data analytics. “Based on our assumptions and the new fee schedule values, me...