Mark Askins, Vice President of JH Askins Company.

With the adoption of LC4663, LC4644, and court cases that have primarily upheld the provisions of these two hastily-enacted additions to labor codes, the workers’ compensation defense community has been provided with a new tool to create a greater sense of accountability and fairness in our system.

This is analogous to the reforms that were implemented in 1991 and 1993 pertaining to psychiatric claims. The WCAB, the COA, and the Supreme Court upheld the letter and the intent of these significant changes, and the defense community has successfully used this tool to significantly reduce the employer community’s exposure to this species of claims.

It is imperative that with the greater costs the employer/carrier community is facing in the comp arena, increased medical costs, Medicare exposure, and a return to a less predictable outcome in terms of PD awards, that the defense community take full advantage of the provisions of LC4663 and LC4664.

In my presentation I hope to expose those in attendance to tools that can be utilized to help uncover information about prior medical treatment, disabilities, and how these prior conditions affect the injured worker’s ADL’s, to take full advantage of the provisions of LC4663 and 4664.

Of even greater importance, I hope to foster a dialogue among claims professionals, attorneys, and medical providers concerning the best practices and means to present this information to the evaluating physician and the workers’ comp judiciary.