California’s Division of Workers’ Compensation has announced that it will hold a public hearing on the adoption of new regulations, including extending the time frame to schedule a medical-legal evaluation.
Medical-Legal Evaluations in California: What You Need To Know
In California, a medical-legal evaluation is a process where a certified health professional (Qualified Medical Evaluator, or QME) evaluates an injured worker with the purpose of helping prove or disprove a workers’ compensation claim.
According to the current version of the California Code of Regulations (§31.3), “If a party with the legal right to schedule an appointment with a QME is unable to obtain an appointment with a selected QME within sixty (60) days of the date of the appointment request, that party may waive the right to a replacement in order to accept an appointment no more than ninety (90) days after the date of the party’s initial appointment request.”
If approved, the new amendment would give the requesting party 90 days to schedule a medical-legal evaluation. If they are unable to obtain an appointment within that time frame, the requesting party would be able to waive their right to a replacement in order to get an appointment within 120 days from the initial request.
How To Attend or Submit Comments
The public hearing will be held on Tuesday, November 15, 2022. Here’s the information you need if you are interested in attending:
Elihu Harris State Office Building – Auditorium
1515 Clay Street
Oakland, CA 94612
You can also submit written comments until the end of the day on Tuesday, November 15, 2022 to the attention to:
Maureen Gray, Regulations Coordinator
Department of Industrial Relations
P.O. Box 420603
San Francisco, CA 94142
Fax: (510) 286-0687
Email: dwcrules@dir.ca.gov
To learn more about medical legal billing in California, be sure to check out our previous blogs: “7 Essential Terms To Understand Medical Legal Billing in California,” and “What Is a Medical Legal Expense?”
Practice IQ: Medical Legal Billing in California
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