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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

April 19, 2024
Workers Compensation Bill 2024: One percent of employee’s salary to contribute to workers’ compensation fund in Kenya.

April 15, 2024
Colorado Worker Shows Head Injury Happened as a Consequence of a Knock on the Head at Work

SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The California Highway Patrol's explanation for why so many high ranking officers claim disability doesn't make sense and should be investigated, the Legislative Analyst's Office said.

Approximately 80 percent of CHP chiefs have retired with medical pensions since 2000, compared with about 60 percent of other officers, the analyst said. The office recommended the Legislature require the CHP to investigate the phenomenon dubbed "chief's disease."

The CHP said chiefs serve longer and retire later, leading to more on-the-job injuries that qualify them for disability retirements. But the nonpartisan analyst said in a report Thursday that lower-ranking officers, such as captains and lieutenants, retire at about the same time and age _ but have lower medical pension rates.

About 150 chiefs supervise 7,000 CHP officers.

Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Daly City, who chairs a committee that oversees the CHP, suggested chiefs and their superiors may know better how to play the workers' compensation system. But she credited new CHP Commissioner Michael Brown with trying to cut the CHP's overall workers' compensation and medical pension costs.

The analyst's report on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget request notes that the CHP's workers' compensation costs grew 89 percent in eight years, while its medical pension rates exceed the statewide average for police and firefighters.