The Law Offices of Heywood G. Friedman is pleased to announce that Yan Falkinstein, Esq. MBA has joined the firm as Managing Attorney of its Workers’ Compensation Practice. With nearly 13 years’ experience as a workers’ compensation defense attorney, including over three years as a Supervising Attorney at another highly regarded defense firm, Yan brings …
Overriding UR: A 60-Second Seminar in Workers’ Compensation Claims Handling
There are times in workers’ compensation matters where attorneys on both sides are bewildered when reviewing a utilization review (UR) decision denying requested medical treatment, especially when the denial substantially increases the value of the permanent disability entitlement to the injured worker. Twice we have seen this done over the past few months. The first …
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Lump Sum PDAs: A 60-Second Seminar in Workers’ Compensation Claims Handling
Without a doubt, every examiner who handles indemnity claims has at one time or another been asked by a claimant for a lump sum PD advance. While some injured workers ask only for a few hundred dollars, others aren’t shy to ask for far more. The purpose of today’s blog is to offer a few …
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The Five-Day Rule: A 60-Second Seminar in Workers’ Compensation Claims Handling
We are somewhat confident that most claims professionals are aware the law requires utilization review (UR) to issue a decision within five business days of receipt of a request for authorization (RFA). It’s called the five-day rule. However, the amount of litigation occurring over interpretation of this rule is absolutely mind boggling. We are not …
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Creating Needless Claims: A 60-Second Seminar in Workers’ Compensation Claims Handling
There are times when an employer is uncertain if a claim should be filed when a worker claims injury, especially when compensability is in question. Employers are often advised by their administrator that when in doubt, err on the side of caution by submitting an Employer’s First Report of Industrial Injury form, knowing that the …
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Imputed Knowledge: A 60-Second Seminar in Workers’ Compensation Claims Handling
Most workers’ compensation claims professionals are aware of the axiom, “what the employer knows, the claims administrator is presumed to know.” This phrase is interpreted to means that if an employer is aware of a fact pertaining to a workers’ compensation case, then its administrator is also presumed to be aware of it, under the …
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Claims Forfeiture: A 60-Second Seminar in Workers’ Compensation Claims Handling
We recently faced an interesting situation arising from a carrier’s failure to timely issue a decision in a case where compensability was being investigated. The decision was issued well beyond the limit allowed under Labor Code 5401(b)(1), which provides that once 90-days from submission of a DWC-1 Claim Form has elapsed without a decision, the …
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The Self-Insurance Exam: A 60-Second Seminar in Workers’ Compensation Claims Handling
The California Office of Self-Insurance Plans (OSIP) is the state entity responsible for offering the Self-Insured Workers’ Compensation Claims Administrator examination. Candidates who successfully pass the exam receive a certificate demonstrating their competency to handle self-insured claims. By regulation, every self-insurance adjusting location is required to have at least one person on staff who successfully passed the …
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EAMS Case Search: A 60-Second Seminar in Workers’ Compensation Claims Handling
Many claim professionals are unaware that our California workers’ compensation system allows the public free limited access to records of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board through the EAMS computer database. EAMS is an acronym for “Electronic Adjudication Management System” which has been used by the WCAB since November 17, 2008. It replaced the Electronic Data Exchange …
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Requesting an Additional QME: A 60-Second Seminar in Workers’ Compensation Claims Handling
Due to the nature of certain industrial injuries, there are times during the life of a workers’ compensation claim when an injured worker may require QME examinations by physicians specializing in different fields of medicine. For example, a worker with alleged foot, ear and heart injuries will probably require evaluations by a podiatrist, otologist, and …
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Occupational Adjustment: A 60-Second Seminar in Workers’ Compensation Claims Handling
We will begin today’s blog by asking our readers to answer four questions concerning the role an injured worker’s occupation plays when calculating a PD rating. Question #1: If a worker performs two occupations for an employer, which occupation is used when rating PD? Answer: The occupation producing the greater rating is used. Question #2: …
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Terrorism Claims: A 60-Second Seminar in Workers’ Compensation Claims Handling
We suspect that many claim professionals have wondered what workers’ compensation law has to say as to employees injured as a result of an act of terrorism. Sadly, injury by that scenario is not that far-fetched. Case in point, the terrorist attack which occurred on December 2, 2015, in San Bernardino resulting in the death …
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