California Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, said he decided to “take the bull by the horns” in introducing legislation to fight workers’ compensation fraud in the state.
In a commentary in the Modesto Bee on Thursday, Gray said his Assembly Bill 1244 “will eliminate some of the biggest scams that cost honest businesses and honest injured workers" more than an estimated $1 billion every year. The bill, as amended in the Senate, was approved by the Assembly Insurance Committee on Thursday.
Gray said in his opinion column that the bill targets two types of fraud. In one type, medical providers who have been banned from Medicaid or Medi-Cal for overbilling “have moved their scams into the workers’ compensation system,” he said. Such providers would be banned from practicing in the workers’ compensation system under AB 1244.
The legislation also targets another type of fraud, in which lawyers sign up people they’ve never talked to for workers’ compensation cases in distant cities. They then settle the cases for their fees, often as the worker remains unaware of what’s happening, he said.
To combat the practice, Gray said, AB 1244 would require lawyers to sign a statement that they have interviewed and informed the worker where the claim will be filed. If lawyers lie, they could lose their licenses.
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3 Comments
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David Stein Aug 29, 2016 a 3:08 pm PDT
How about incarceration of insurance company execs that commit fraud? Hacking, pushing opioids, pay for play, bribery.
John A. Don esq. Nov 3, 2016 a 2:58 pm PDT
Excellent idea - I have clients who were solicited by cappers. The client signs a blank venue form and they are later told the case was filed in a county a hundred miles away from their home!
Dina Padilla Sep 25, 2016 a 5:09 am PDT
how many doctors went from labeling worker comp injuries to medi-cal or medicare> and that falsifying & altering records as is done in workers comp paying the liars thousands for false medical reporting and the injured worker STILL doesn't get the right medical care or the other benefits owed to them. Looks like the insurers with govt programs don't mind shifting schemes o defraud for decades but who dares to listen to the injured worker about how the are defrauded medically and financially. When insurance claim adjusters work it wit medi-cal, medicare or SSA, only they and the employer benefit. One of these days someone with real legislative representation WILL listen to the injured on who the real frauds are.