Dispute Centers on Choice of Physicians

Allowing injured workers to pick their own doctors for treatment is emerging as a potential sticking point in efforts to craft workers’ compensation insurance reforms, polls released Wednesday suggest.

In one poll, sponsored by a coalition of industry groups, 74% of Californians said they supported a proposed ballot initiative designed to cut employers’ soaring workers’ comp premiums.

But 57% of those polled also said they would oppose forcing injured workers to pick a new doctor if their employer doesn’t agree with their current choice -- a key element of the proposed workers’ comp reforms.

That finding jibed with poll results released by opponents of the proposed reform initiative. In that poll, sponsored by the California Applicants’ Attorneys Assn. -- the lawyers who represent injured workers -- 55% of respondents said they would vote no on a workers’ comp initiative after being told it would eliminate an injured worker’s right to choose his or her doctor. Only 36% said they would support such a measure.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has promised to pursue a workers’ comp ballot initiative if the Democratic-controlled Legislature does not send him a “comprehensive reform” package by March 1.

Workers’ not being able to choose their doctors is “clearly an issue that could break the initiative,” said the attorneys’ pollster, David Binder of San Francisco. His poll of 700 likely California voters was taken Jan. 14-18 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7%.

Jan R. van Lohuizen, the pollster for the employers’ group, disagreed that the doctors’ choice issue would sink the initiative if it made it to the November ballot.

“Even the opponents’ best argument, that injured workers should be allowed to pick their own doctor instead of having to be treated by a doctor assigned by their employer or an insurance company, did not sway voters” regarding their overall opinion of the initiative, he said.

The employers’ poll, sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Manufacturers & Technology Assn. and the Workers’ Compensation Action Network, surveyed 800 California voters Feb. 10-15 and had a margin of error of 3.5%.

The industry groups said their poll’s findings sent a powerful signal to the Legislature that reforms must be passed soon.

“It’s time the Legislature stepped up to fix a broken system,” Chamber President Allan Zaremberg said.

Manufacturers & Technology Assn. President Jack Stewart said rising premium costs, which more than doubled to $14.7 billion between 1999 and 2002, have made the cost of workers’ compensation “the black cloud on California’s horizon.”

The employers, however, said they were heartened by the nearly continuous talks they’ve been having on workers’ comp with legislative staff and labor lobbyists in the governor’s office. “It’s too early to tell if we are getting closer, but we are making progress,” Zaremberg said.

In a sign of progress Wednesday, the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee passed a bill that would fine-tune last year’s medical cost containment legislation and restore funding to a state agency that oversees workers’ comp. The funding had been mistakenly stricken from the state budget.