A Partner at Boxer & Gerson LLP, Julius Young has practiced worker’s compensation law and social security disability law since 1979. He has represented thousands of individuals who have sustained life-changing injuries or illnesses while on the job. In every case, his goal is to secure the medical treatments his clients need.
Should California adopt a single payer healthcare system? How might this integrate with other federal and private health systems? And how would California workers’ comp be affected? These are all questions that are coming to the fore as the California legislature considers SB 562 (Lara/Atkins), known as the Healthy California Act. SB passed out of […]
We’re in one of those languid periods of California workers’ comp. A final formulary isn’t done. Legislatively speaking, many of the bills bouncing around probably aren’t headed for the Labor Code. Those who would like to see worker-side reforms don’t have juice with this governor and administration. RAND studies on anti-fraud efforts and medical care reforms aren’t yet […]
We’re coming down to the wire on adoption of a formulary mandated by AB 1124, which set July 1, 2017 as the date for adoption of a prescription drug formulary. A May 1, 2017 DWC hearing was held in Oakland on the current formulary version, the 45-day comment phase. While it may be possible for the […]
Workers’ compensation in California is about to enter the tar pit of genetics, That’s the take-away from City of Jackson v. WCAB (Christopher Rice), an April 26, 2017 ruling by the California Court of Appeal 3rd District that has been certified for publication (the entire opinion is at the bottom of this post). Writing for […]
Despite his promises, President Trump may not be draining the swamp. But in the California workers’ comp world, the medical provider swamp is being drained, little by little. Yesterday came word that scores of physicians up and down the state had been charged in a kickback scheme involving compound medications, transdermal creams, and urine tests. Allegedly, […]
Most of the focus of various workers’ comp studies are on the “back end” of workers’ comp. By that, I mean studies on medical costs, the litigation process, indemnity cost trends, loss adjustment and medical cost containment expense, prescribing practices, provider abuse and the litany of other topics that I cover in this blog from time […]
We’re starting to get more input from the California WCAB on what constitutes a “violent act”. In May 2016 the WCAB addressed the issue in Deborah Larsen v. Securitas Security Services (2016 Cal.Wrk.Comp.P.D.LEXIS 237). Larsen was in a parking lot doing her walking patrol as a security guard when she was hit from behind by […]