BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 2086 (Cooley) - Workers' compensation: neuropsychologists
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|Version: August 1, 2016 |Policy Vote: L. & I.R. 4 - 0 |
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|Urgency: Yes |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Robert Ingenito |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 2086 would (1) permit the Division of Workers'
Compensation to appoint qualified clinical neuropsychologists as
Qualified Medical Examiners (QMEs), and (2) allow
neuropsychologists certified by specified boards to perform the
services of a QME.
Fiscal
Impact: DIR would incur minor and absorbable costs to develop
new regulations. However, DIR anticipates that the bill would
result in unknown, potentially significant costs to the workers'
compensation system as a consequence of an increase in requests
for qualified medical examiner panels.
Background: Current law generally requires employers to provide workers'
compensation, including medical treatments, for employees
injured on the job. QMEs are medical examiners who have taken an
AB 2086 (Cooley) Page 1 of
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exam and met certain specific requirements that are authorized
to conduct an evaluation of "medical-legal issues".
Medical-legal does NOT refer to if an injured worker will or
will not receive medical treatment. Rather, medical-legal
relates to the legal consequences of medical conditions,
frequently the extent to which an injured employee's injuries or
conditions are disabling, or whether the injuries or conditions
have become permanent and stationary.
When there is a medical-legal dispute, a party can request
appointment of a QME. The requesting party specifies what sort
of expertise is needed to resolve the dispute, and the Division
of Workers Compensation (DWC) appoints a panel, from which a
single QME is selected. If both parties can agree to a single
medical examiner, than the agreed upon doctor, known as an
Agreed Medical Evaluator (AME), is used instead of the QME panel
to resolve the Medical-legal issues.
Until recently, Clinical Neuropsychologists were included as
being eligible for selection as QMEs. Generally, Clinical
Neuropsychologists were selected for their expertise in cases
involving head trauma. However, this is no longer the case.
DWC may only certify a psychologist if the psychologist is board
certified by the Board of Psychology or a board recognize by the
DWC. Currently, Clinical Neuropsychology is not a recognized
specialty by the Board of Psychology. Despite this, the DWC
recognized Clinical Neuropsychologists as QMEs until recent
regulations removed Clinical Neurologists from the list of
potential QMEs. This action brought the QME regulations in line
with statute. This bill would return the QME process to the
prior status quo, allowing clinical neuropsychologists to be
appointed as QMEs
Proposed Law: This bill would do all of the following:
Clarify that a physician and surgeon can be appointed as
a QME if he or she is either board certified or has
completed a residency or fellowship training program, as
specified.
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Permit a medical doctor to be appointed as a QME if his
or her residency training program was certified by a
predecessor to the ACGME or the American Osteopathic
Association.
Permit the appointment of a clinical neuropsychologist
as a QME if:
o The clinical neuropsychologist is certified by a
board recognized by the Administrative Director of the
Division of Workers Compensation and either the Medical
Board of California or the Osteopathic Medical Board of
California, and;
o The clinical neuropsychologist is licensed to
practice psychology in this state and has a doctoral
degree in psychology from an accredited university or
college training program, has completed an internship or
its equivalent in a clinically relevant area of
professional psychology, and has at least two years of
experience and specialized training, at least one year of
which is at the post-doctoral level in the study and
practice of clinical neuropsychology and related
neurosciences under the supervision of a clinical
neuropsychologist, and has served as an agreed medical
evaluator in neuropsychology on five or more occasions.
Related
Legislation: AB 1542 (Mathis) of 2015 was very similar to this
bill. The bill was vetoed by the Governor.
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