Desperate Times For Chiropractors and Applicant Attorneys
By Robert Warne - February 13, 2004Venting their frustrations over recent workers’ compensation reform measures and the current proposals on the table, the California Chiropractic Association (CCA) and the California Applicants' Attorneys Association (CAAA) went fishing for a sympathetic ear this week.
At a Senate hearing Feb. 11, CCA testified that last year's legislation will cut chiropractic care by as much as 70 percent and that new legislation could eliminate chiropractic care altogether.
CCA doesn’t want Doctors of Chiropractic to be cut out of the loop in the determination of a claimant’s disability.
Under the proposed legislation a claimant who is treated by a chiropractor would be required to see a medical doctor before returning to work or being placed on temporary or permanent disability.
"There is no credible evidence that chiropractic care produces higher rates of disability than other medical treatment," said, Dr. Doug Wilson, CCA President and a practicing Doctor of Chiropractic from Santa Maria.
He also said that removing chiropractic care from the workers’ compensation system will not save anyone any money, and that such a move would subject injured workers to more pain because they would be denied the most effective treatment for their injuries.
Also on Feb. 11, the CAAA tapped into the pain a claimant would have to endure argument if Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi’s work comp proposal became law.
The organization argued that the Commissioner’s plan would reduce claimants’ benefits without regulating the top end of carrier premiums.
“After injured workers’ benefits were cut by more than $5 billion last year, most insurers did nothing but pocket record profits. The Commissioner would reduce benefits to injured workers but allow unlimited profits for insurance companies. That’s not right,” said David Schwartz, CAAA’s President-Elect.
The American Insurance Association (AIA) wasn’t going to stand idly by without challenging CAAA’s characterization that claimants are footing the bill for last year’s $5 billion in system reforms while carriers are ringing in record profits.
CAAA deceptively and wrongly cited net income reports issued by insurers to imply that selling workers' compensation policies in California is profitable. "This is absurd,” said Nicole Mahrt, public affairs director for the Western Region. “The National Association of Insurance Commissioners confirms that California workers' compensation insurance has not generated a net operating profit for seven straight years. In fact, despite raising rates, insurers continue to pay out $1.17 in costs for every $1.00 in earned premium.”
Mahrt went through a laundry list of carriers that have either succumb to insolvency or left the state on their own volition.
He concluded, “The CAAA can claim all it wants that the California workers’ compensation insurance market is profitable – but those assertions are flatly contradicted by the record and the bone-strewn plain of carriers representing a once-great domestic California workers’ compensation industry.” | 
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