One of Arnold Schwarzenegger's earliest, most significant and most controversial accomplishments as governor was 2004 legislation that significantly overhauled the state's multibillion-dollar system of compensating workers for job- related illnesses and injuries.
Eligibility for workers' compensation benefits and medical evaluations of disability were tightened up, reducing costs to employers by an estimated $15 billion a year.
Although unions, workers' comp attorneys and medical providers largely opposed the changes, Schwarzenegger teamed with employers, who were threatening to place a more drastic overhaul before voters, to cajole Democratic legislators into voting for the overhaul.
Since then, Democratic lawmakers have turned against the reforms, saying that they went much further than intended, thanks to the Schwarzenegger administration's subsequent rule-making. There has been an on-again, off-again effort in the Legislature to roll back the 2004 legislation.
Opponents' hopes for repeal or modification rest mostly, however, on electing a Democratic governor in 2010 who would either sign new legislation or change administrative rules.
While that plays itself out, the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board – an obscure, quasi-judicial body that handles workers' comp case appeals – has tossed a bombshell into the never-ending political jousting over the system's benefits and governing rules.
Last month, the WCAB, all of whose members are appointed by the governor, more or less gutted one of the 2004 overhaul's major provisions, requiring doctors to use American Medical Association guidelines to evaluate a worker's disability.
The decision, in merged cases of a truck driver and a school secretary, declares that the AMA guidelines can be sidestepped if following them "would result in a permanent disability award that would be inequitable, disproportionate, and not a fair and accurate measure of the employee's permanent disability."
Business and employer groups are fuming that the board is ignoring the wording and intent of the 2004 law. The case is probably headed to the courts for a final disposition. But the WCAB decision is a rare piece of good news for groups representing or treating impaired workers that have chafed for a half-decade.
Perhaps the WCAB's members know their unanimous decision probably doesn't comport with the law as written, but are sending a message to the administration that the implementing rules are too tough on workers with legitimate disability claims and should be revised. The administration had once promised a re-examination of the law's effects but apparently has never delivered it.
In the meantime, the WCAB decision has thrown countless pending workers' comp cases into turmoil, with the hearing officers, physicians, workers' attorneys and those representing insurers and employers trying to figure out how much additional leeway they have in rating disability claims.
Call The Bee's Dan Walters, (916) 321-1195. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/walters.
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