CHSWC Issues Spanish Version of Workers' Compensation Guide

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 5, 2003

CONTACT:
Christine Baker
415-703-4220

CHSWC Issues 2002-2003 Annual Report on California's
Health, Safety and Workers' Compensation Systems

SAN FRANCISCO -- The California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation (CHSWC) has issued its ninth Annual Report for 2002-2003 of its activities to improve vital programs affecting nearly all Californians. This Annual Report includes CHSWC's recommendations that were incorporated in the recently signed workers' compensation bills - SB 228 and AB 227 - as well as additional recommendations for legislative and administrative changes.

Since its beginning, CHSWC has engaged in several projects and studies to evaluate how certain areas of the California workers' compensation system have been affected by the reform legislation and other influences, such as the economy. CHSWC has directed its efforts to identify and assess problems and to provide an empirical basis for recommendations and/or further investigations.

CHSWC recommendations in the 2002-2003 Annual Report focus on system improvements which will benefit workers and employers:

Stabilize the Workers' Compensation Insurance Market and Reduce Workers' Compensation Costs and Premium Rates to Employers. The viability and future solvency of the California insurance industry is critical to maintaining the health of the workers' compensation system, which benefits both workers and employers.

Improve Efficiency of Administration. Efficient administration of workers' compensation can lead to prompt resolution of disputes and provision of services and can also lower costs to employers without reducing benefits to injured workers.

Streamline Benefit Delivery and Focus on Return to Work. It is critical to minimize the financial impact of a work injury on the employee and the employer by emphasizing the prompt delivery of benefits and return to work. If an injury occurs, prompt delivery of benefits and return to sustained employment prevent much of the costs borne by injured workers and their employers.

Maintain a Healthy Workforce through Prevention and Worker Protection. Workers can avoid the potentially devastating consequences of injury, disability and lost work, while employers can avoid the cost of compensation and medical care, as well as lost productivity.

Reduce Disputes. If the workers' compensation dispute is avoided or resolved prior to litigation, workers and employers mutually benefit.

Control Workers' Compensation Costs and Ensure Access to High-Quality Medical Care. With recent increases in the cost of medical care for workers' compensation, consideration of various cost controls is encouraged. However, this must be balanced with the need for access to quality care by injured workers to maintain a healthy, productive workforce.

Explore Targeting Benefits and Integrating Systems. The targeting of benefits to workers with greater need improves outcomes for injured workers without increasing costs to employers. The relationship between workers' compensation and other social insurance programs is not well understood and needs to be analyzed.

CHSWC is charged with overseeing the health and safety and workers' compensation systems in California and recommending administrative or legislative modifications to improve their operation. The Commission was established to conduct a continuing examination of the workers' compensation system and of the state's activities to prevent industrial injuries and occupational diseases and to examine those programs in other states.

Since its inception in 1994, CHSWC has held meetings, conducted fact-finding hearings, and directed several studies to determine how these crucial programs are serving California employees and employers. These studies, conducted by independent research organizations under contract with CHSWC, and other activities were aided by the involvement of state agency personnel and interested members of the workers' compensation community. This cooperative public-private partnership continues to work together to identify, describe, measure and propose solutions to problems and difficulties in the current health and safety and workers' compensation systems.

CHSWC's 2002-2003 Annual Report and other publications are available at CHSWC's home page at www.dir.ca.gov/chswc. A copy of the CHSWC 2002-2003 Annual Report may be obtained at no charge by writing to the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation, 455 Golden Gate Avenue, 10th Floor, San Francisco, California 94102, by calling (415) 703-4220, by faxing a request to (415) 703-4234, or by emailing chswc@dir.ca.gov.

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