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April 25, 2024
California Department of Industrial Relations and Cal/OSHA Will Honor Workers’ Memorial Day at Four Events in California on April 28th-29th 2024. Cal/OSHA Joining Partners in Arcadia, Richmond, San Diego and San Francisco.

April 23, 2024
California Division of Workers' Compensation Launches Online Portal for Submission of QME Medical-Legal Reports

April 22, 2024
California Division of Workers’ Compensation Posts Updated Time of Hire Notice

April 22, 2024
Sullivan on Comp Launches ChatSOC. It's an Innovative Chatbot for California Workers' Compensation Professionals Integrated with an Authoritative Legal Treatise

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called himself "a very, very happy governor" on Friday, and called the bill "a huge, huge win for California" that would prodigiously improve the state of California's business climate and economic prospects.

The hoped for reduction in costs to the entire system including lower premiums for employers will be real, Schwarzenegger declared.  "I assume this will create reductions of between 25% and 30%" of costs, he said.  "We're talking about billions and billions of dollars."  

"There clearly are going to be savings," Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi said.  "These reforms, when fully effective, will dramatically reduce the cost of workers' comp in California and move us from a position where we are far ahead of any other state to a position that puts us in the ranks of other high-cost states."

"The problem that California has had is that it has never done a holistic reform.  Until now," Garamendi went on to say.  Frank Neuhauser, a workers' comp expert at UC Berkeley's Survey Research Center, said a preliminary analysis indicated that the bill should generate $4 billion in savings in 2006.  Cost cutting from last year's medical-cost containment measure should hit $6.5 billion, and recent projections of slower growth in workers' comp benefits should drop costs by $3 billion, creating an overall reduction of $13.5 billion out of a total that was expected to hit $30 billion in 2006 prior to the latest changes.

Whether those savings will soon reach employers' bottom lines isn't clear.  Garamendi has scheduled for April 29th a first hearing to gather information to calculate recommended premiums for bills due after July 1st.  The Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau has already begun to research how the new changes will affect premiums.