This monograph analyzes the effects of changes to the workers' compensation system on return-to-work rates for California's injured workers. The authors study how public policies that influence return to work have changed in California in the past decade, estimate average return-to-work rates, compare the trends with the policy changes, and examine the impact that recent system reforms have had on benefit adequacy.

The purpose of this study was to determine the perception among defense attorneys regarding the New Reform Law SB899. The study was also to further assess defenses satisfaction with regard to the leadership provided by Governor Schwarzenegger, Senator Poochigian and the Legislature as a whole. Furthermore the study was to assess defense attorneys readiness to defend the gain afforded following the passage of the reform law.

This brief summarizes a study of how changes to the workers' compensation system have affected return-to-work rates in California, how return-to-work trends compare with policy changes, and recent trends in benefit adequacy.

This book has two sections. The first section deals with the History of the California Workers Compensation system and the initial reform law Senate Bill 899. The next section which begins in chapter 6 to 18 has to do with the Current reform law SB 863 one of the most comprehensive and sweeping reform. The book will be valuable to both injured workers and employers by expanding their knowledge about the California Workers Compensation system from the inception of claims to final settlement and lien resolution. Dr. Elias Teferi

This paper examines the reforms made to California's Workers' Compensation (WC) law between 2002 and 2004. During the pre-reform period employers in California faced the largest average WC premiums in the nation, whereas the post-reform period saw decreases in injuries, cost per claim and premiums. We assess the impact of the reforms on employees by examining the propensity to seek care for minor injuries before and after the reforms and reveal who bore the incidence of reforms. We test for a change in propensity to seek care via the ``Monday effect" often documented in the literature and examine if the prevalence of Monday claims changed after the reform years. We also examine the incidence of the reforms by revealing if reductions in Workers' Compensation insurance premiums were passed-through to the worker in the form of higher real wages. We use a control state and apply the difference-in-differences method to measure the effects in California relative to the counter-factual. We control for occupational risk by creating an index of relative risk by occupation for each state and find that wages in California increased during the post-reform period relative to our control group. In our intra-state comparison, we find that relative to low-risk industries, workers in high risk industries experienced decreases in their wages despite a decrease in the average WC premium.

This book examines the impact that changes to California's workers' compensation (WC) system have had on the medical care provided to injured workers, synthesizes findings from interviews and available information regarding the implementation of the changes affecting WC medical care, and identifies areas in which additional changes might increase the quality and efficiency of care delivered under the WC system.