Reforming Workers’ Comp

It was an interesting coincidence to read your article about the fearsome dinosaur “Big Al” (Science/Medicine) and your editorial about the dinosaur workers’ comp that ate California (Nov. 4).

This scandal of workers’ comp is probably no greater or more insidious than that of auto insurance or health insurance. What makes it more acute and depressing is the fact that it relates to employment. The law requires that an injured worker be provided with three basic benefits:

1) Unlimited medical care.

2) Disability indemnity compensation.

3) Vocational rehabilitation.

An injured worker should receive all three benefits promptly so he or she can re-enter the labor market without unnecessary delay. The problem is that these three primary benefits are usually considered only in terms of money.

One major aspect of the solution is the adequate and proper staffing of all units of the Division of the Workers’ Compensation of California. Proper staffing will enable these claims to be processed more speedily, which was one of the original intents of the Workers’ Compensation Act.

If there are sufficient numbers of workers’ compensation referees, judges, vocational rehabilitation consultants and permanent disability evaluators, then it will be fair to say that the scandal will be substantially eliminated and we need not consider the system as a dinosaur that ate California.

KENNETH Z. LAUTMAN, Chair

Workers’ Compensation Section

Los Angeles County Bar Assn.