Governor Signs Predesignation Bill

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 | 0

By Julius Young

In what will be a surprise to the conventional wisdom, Governor Schwarzenegger has signed Senate Bill 186, a bill which extends the right to predesignate a physician for workers' comp treatment.

Under the 2004 SB 899 reforms, the right to predesignate was scheduled to sunset at the end of 2009. SB 186, authored by State Senator Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, preserves the right to predesignate a physician before a work injury.

The predicted sunset of predesignation has been a source of unhappiness among many labor officials. Predesignation of a treating physician has been very popular with some workers. Although the issue may not have touched the vast majority of injured workers, the predicted demise of predesignation was seen as an unacceptable take-away to some.

In my experience, most workers haven't bothered to predesignate, even if they had the right to do so. Boxer and Gerson has many union clients, but even with a union clientele I still don't see that many workers who bother to predesignate.

Still, I would advise those who are eligible to do so. Otherwise, the employer can require the worker to select from a medical provider network list.

There had been rumors swirling that predesignation restoration would be a bargaining chip for other systemic changes, such as a revised Permanent Disability Rating Schedule or or other medical cost-containment moves. If any deal was struck, it's under the radar for the moment.

For those workers who are eligible to predesignate (note: the employer must offer non-occupational health insurance, so not all employees can predesignate) who wish to predesignate a physician, a form can be found here:
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/forms/dwcform_9783.pdf

Workers who want to predesignate should look at the form carefully, since the statute contains a number of requirements that must be satisfied to have a valid predesignation. I'm aware that some employers have taken the position that only the DWC website form can be used. The statute does not say that. Some unions have dispatched workers to jobs with the predesignated doctor being indicated by filling in a stamp. But there are earlier versions of predesignation forms floating around which may not refer to all the elements that need to be satisfied for a valid predesignation. To my knowledge there has been little if any litigation at the WCAB over the validity of predesignation designations.

Julius Young is an applicants' attorney with the Boxer & Gerson law firm in Oakland. This column was reprinted with his permission from his blog, http://www.workerscompzone.com