Sedgwick CMS will now handle the workers' compensation claims for the self-insured 99 Cent Only Stores, headquartered in Commerce, California.

Alex Feliciano, a claims examiner who has been handling the 99 Cent files at SCRMA, will spend his last day at SCRMA today, Wednesday, September 30th.  When asked what he has been doing since the files left on Monday, he said, "I've been answering the phone and telling everyone to call Sedgwick."

Prior to May of 2003, 99 Cent Only Stores was self-insured, self-administered, and had their claims office in their headquarters' building in Commerce.  John Riggs, who is now the claims manager of Disney in Anaheim, California, was the claims manager of 99 Cent's self-insured, self-administered operation from January 2002 to May of 2003.  

After 99 Cent closed their self-administered operation in 2003, they went to a TPA.  Their claims were then handled for a time by ICA (Integrated Claims Administrators), headquartered in Torrance, California; then they changed administrators and went to ClaimsQuest in Walnut; then they went to SCRMA, where their claims were handled in SCRMA's Riverside office. 

Now Sedgwick will be the fourth TPA to have administered the 99 Cents Only Stores' work comp claims in just slightly over a six-year period. 

Readers are encouraged to write to writer Lonce LaMon at lonce@adjustercom.com