The California Applicants’ Attorneys Association (CAAA) is a Teamsters affiliate that focuses on providing legal advocacy and guidance to tens of thousands of union members throughout the state. The organization also uses its experience and influence to help improve California legislation that deals with the rights of injured workers. Wax & Wax, A Law Corporation’s very own Alan Wax is on the Board of Governors and a Director of CAAA.
On July 17th, 2018, the CAAA compiled and filed official comments about proposed “Evidence-Based Updates” to the Medical Treatment Utilization Schedule (MTUS). The comments were provided to the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) for review and consideration. The DIR is also asking the public for its ideas on the proposed changes.
The MTUS requires that medical decisions of care for injured workers to be reached using “Evidence-Based Medicine” (EBM). The CAAA comments have noted that proposed guidelines from the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) might be misplaced. The guidelines up for review and potential adoption seem to only be concerned with how physicians create medical reports and store information, rather than acknowledging preexisting and trusted standards of medical care. With the possible conflict of instruction or direction, a physician could inadvertently fail to meet the new guidelines and consequently have a patient’s medical care denied, despite matching all MTUS prerequisites.
In light of the proposed changes from the ACOEM, the CAAA has adamantly insisted for the MTUS to integrate excellent medical care based on standards of care, real-world medical experience, and evidence-based medicine. Simply relying on a medical provider’s reports, and not EBM, could potentially lead to mistreatments of patients.
(Would you like to know more about the CAAA’s comments? You can click here to view a PDF file of the full commentary.)
At Wax & Wax, A Law Corporation, our Glendale workers’ compensation attorneys are always keeping an eye out for important news stories and bits of legislation that could impact the working class of California. Be sure to visit our blog regularly for any key updates to this ongoing story of CAAA’s comments on MTUS and EBM. We are also one of the founding members of the CAAA, so this matter is close to heart.
You should also be certain to contact our team at 818.946.0608 as soon as possible after being hurt in a work-related accident. Using our 100+ years of collective legal experience, we can fight for your right to workers’ compensation like few other law firms can.
