Everything posted here may be moot or changed by the time you read this, but here are some updates based on currently available info:

Still up for consideration are:
AB 947 (Solorio) (expands eligibility for TD from 104 weeks up to 240 weeks where TD would otherwise run out after a surgery)
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bil ... floor.html

AB 1155 (Alejo) (bans discrimination in apportionment determination based on race, sex, genetics etc). This bill passed out of the Seanate and goes back to the Assembly. Here is the vote tally in the California Senate, which appears to break down on party lines:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bil ... floor.html

AB 228 (Fuentes) (allows SCIF to sell coverage for out of state employees of California firms). As of early today this bill was still in the Insurance Committee:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bil ... tatus.html

AB 378 (Solorio) (compound drug regulation). This bill was rejected in the Senate on a vote yesterday (Ayes 15, Noes 6), but may come back for another vote. A number of Senators did not vote on the measure yesterday.

AB 375 (Skinner) (would create presumption that blood borne MRSA acquired in hospital direct patient care is industrial) appears to be stalling.
A Senate vote yesterday was 20 yes and 15 no but the bill may be reconsidered.

AB 923 (DeLeon) (requires adoption of a new medical fee schedule) was as of this morning in "third reading":
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bil ... tatus.html

Here is the current analysis of AB 923, which has been repeatedly amended:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bil ... floor.html

SB 863 (Lieu) (statute of limitations for liens). This bill appears to be dead for this session, having been "Ordered to inactive file on request of Assembly Member Charles Calderon"
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bil ... tatus.html

SB 432 (DeLeon) (fitted vs flat sheets in hotels). This appears dead for this year:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bil ... tatus.html

As noted above, by the time you read some of this, fate could have changed on some of these measures. With Republicans lacking juice in the Capitol, many of these issues will be decided by coalitions of swing Democrats.
On several issues, the California Medical Association and the California Society for Industrial Medicine (CSIMS) are major players in discussions.

Stay tuned.

Julius Young
www.workerscompzone.com
www.boxerlaw.com

Each year as the legislature winds down, we get to a point where the picture gets foggy.

Bills that seemed to have lots of support and traction start to stall. Bills that seemed dead can spring to life as deals are struck, amendments made, and rules suspended.

Getting information is hard. The official legislative website (www.leginfo.ca.gov) lags behind developments. The Capitol press corps has shrunk mightily. And even in more robust times for California journalism, workers' comp was not high on the agenda.

With all that said, here's a worthy piece detailing the progress of the bill to
set fees for compound medications, by John Howard in Capitol Weekly:
http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.ph ... uv8mjrd2pb

The concept of reining in expanding compound drug costs started this legislative session with rare support. Here's my earlier piece on the "unusual coalition":
http://www.workerscompzone.com/index.ph ... 111-205647

Let's hope this coalition does not unravel.

Julius Young
www.workerscompzone.com
www.boxerlaw.com

Why not settle into your easy chair tonight and put yourself to sleep reading a wonkish report?

Tonight we offer the report just released by the National Academy of Social Insurance, titled "Workers Compensation: Benefits, Coverage and Costs, 2009":
http://www.nasi.org/sites/default/files ... t_2009.pdf

The study panel includes Robert Reviille of Santa Monica's RAND think tank,
Christine Baker, now Chief Deputy Director of the California Department of Industrial Relations, Alex Swedlow from the California Workers' Compensation Institute, Frank Neuhauser from UC Berkeley, and a number of other non-California luminaries in workers' comp research.

Julius Young
www.workerscompzone.com
www.boxerlaw.com

If you're in Northern California this Labor Day (or anywhere in Califoniai, for that matter) tune in tonight to San Francisco AM radio station KGO (KGO Newstalk 810) from 10 to 11.

I'll be appearing on the John Rothmann talk show along with injured worker activist Sam Gold. Gold runs the National Organization of Injured Workers Website:
http://www.noiw.org/

Gold also produced some of the video series, The Comp Guys (www.thecompguys.org) done by myself and noted defense attorney Richard Jacobsmeyer. We hope to resume shooting some additional installments in that series after locating more convenient studio space.

Call ins on tonight's talk show are welcome. You can use your area code (415/650/707/510/408 etc with 808-0810.

If you can't get reception you can live stream the show on the internet:
http://kgoradio.com/showdj.asp?DJID=3553

Julius Young
www.workerscompzone.com
www.boxerlaw.com

This year's Labor Day feels different.

Oh, yes, there will be Labor Day breakfasts and Labor Day picnics, attended by officeholders and some activists. And lots of speechifying.

But in the heartland, there's fear and lack of confidence.

In workers' comp we see personal crises as some workers lose their foothold in the economy after an injury. Many of those workers will need to re-invent their lives. Our workers' comp system gives them few tools to help them envision that process.

Most of us take for granted things that these workers' can't. A client has no money to have a document faxed to me from a Stapes store. A client has to ask for money after a deposition so he can get his car out of the parking garage.A client shows up, disheveled after living in his car.

These are the stories those of us at ground level see and hear.

And to see so many unemployed folks who want to work but who have little chance at scoring a job is saddening. In the past year alone several members of my extended family have been laid off by high-tech firms; it's probably no coincidence that they are in their mid 50s, in an age bracket that makes transitioning very unlikely.

One out of three jobless Californians has been out of work for a year or more:
http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/ ... more-10722

So it's not surprising to see the Obama Administration sending mixed messages. The latest example was the announcement that tougher air pollution regs would not be adopted, a decision that has sent shock waves through the environmental community.

In workers' comp it's still unclear what the Brown Administration is willing to support. Like any sane politician, Brown is worried about further deterioration in the job market.

With the economy generating essentially no new jobs in August, and with minority unemployment at sky-high levels, there is always the unspoken fear of social disorder if unemployment spikes further.

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, now at UC Berkeley, suggests that the key to recovery is in reversing the decline of the middle class. Here's his current op-ed piece, "Th Limping Middle Class", which should be required reading as we head into this Labor Day:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/opini ... class.html

Stay tuned.

Julius Young
www.workerscompzone.com
www.boxerlaw.com