California DWC Announces Changes to Panel QME Request Process to Comply with Navarro v. City of Montebello By CA Dept of Industrial Relations - April 11, 2014
On April 2, 2014, the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) issued an en banc decision in Navarro v. City of Montebello which invalidated part of QME Regulation 35.5(e). Pursuant to the WCAB’s ruling that the applicable Labor Code provisions do not require an employee to return to the same panel QME for an evaluation of a subsequent claim of injury, the DWC Medical Unit will now issue new QME panels for claims made after an evaluation has taken place. Initial QME panel requests must be submitted using QME Form 106 for represented cases or QME Form 105 for unrepresented cases.
To avoid unnecessary rejection of appropriate requests, in cases in which additional panels are required in different specialties, parties and attorneys are reminded to use QME Form 31.7.
California Department of Industrial Relations, P.O. Box 420603 · San Francisco, CA · 94142-0603 · www.dir.ca.gov
Adjuster / Examiner Claims Examiner Santa Ana Unified School District Santa Ana, CA