Since Senate Bill 899 was passed, there has been a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the proper calculation and evaluation of the COLAs provided for under Labor Code Section 4659(c). In the years immediately following the enactment of section 4659, the parties would submit a request to Blair McGowan, the manager of the Disability Evaluation Unit at the time, and ask him to provide the parties with a present value calculation assuming a given permanent and stationary date. As the Duncan case (subsequently becoming Baker) proceeded through the appellate process, the parties would ask Mr. McGowan to assume different commencement dates depending on the possible outcomes of the Baker case. What was most interesting about these commutations was....> Read more

Here's a sneak preview of a recent noteworthy panel decision that will be added to the LexisNexis services soon:

Medical Provider Networks; Notice Requirements. WCAB, affirming WCJ, held that defendant was not liable for medical treatment self-procured by applicant outside defendant's MPN, when WCAB found that (1) defendant's initial failure to provide applicant with notice of its MPN did not result in a neglect or refusal to provide reasonable medical treatment so as to justify treatment outside MPN pursuant to Knight v. United Parcel Service (Appeals Board en banc opinion), because applicant had received treatment within MPN before MPN notice was sent, defects in providing MPN notice can be cured allowing a defendant to satisfy its obligation under LC 4600 to provide reasonable medical treatment through its MPN, and delay in serving injured worker with required MPN notice does not mean that a defendant is liable forever for costs of all self-procured treatment, and (2) lien claimant did not meet its burden of proving that durable medical equipment it claimed to have provided was medical treatment reasonably required to cure or relieve applicant from effects of her admitted injuries to her low back and other body parts. Read the Ochoa panel decision.

Reminder: Be sure to check the subsequent history of a case before citing to it.