Reforming Workers’ Comp

Your editorial on the scandal of workers’ compensation sheds much needed light on a very serious problem. California can no longer tolerate the continuous drain on the system that this program has produced.

What was originally intended to insure both the employed and the employer regardless of fault has evolved over the past 80 years into a travesty, a flagrant violation of its original noble intent.

The scandal stretches across all segments of our society. Dishonest lawyers encourage and incite claims based on little if any substantive damage. Dishonest doctors in collusion with others practice outright fraud or charge unconscionable fees for services not needed or hardly rendered. Dishonest workers file claims where injuries are exaggerated and pain and suffering falsified. Compound all of these with the opportunities now to declare job stress as a legitimate injury and the result is a program out of control.

We have two choices. We can continue with piecemeal inadequate attempts to patch the mess, as each player fights to protect turf and financial interests, or we can sit down together, the Bar Assn., organized medicine, labor and business, and firmly commit to meaningful reform and restructuring.

I can assure you that the California Medical Assn. and the Los Angeles County Medical Assn. stand ready to do their part.

MARIE G. KUFFNER, MD

President-Elect, Los Angeles County

Medical Assn.

Chairman, California Medical Assn.

Council on Medical Services