CA-DWC Extends Public Comment On QME's Regulations And Forms To November 6

Oakland, CA  (CompNewsNetwork) - The Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC) has added the following changes to the 2nd 15-day public comment period for the QME regulations posted on its Web site:

• The text of Section 35.5(f) is revised to state: "Unless the Appeals Board or a Workers� Compensation Administrative Law Judge orders otherwise or the parties agree otherwise, whenever a party is legally entitled to depose the evaluator, the evaluator shall, upon the request of either party, make himself or herself available for deposition within at least 120 days of the notice of deposition and, whenever consistent with Labor Code section 5710, the deposition shall be held at the location at which the evaluation examination was performed"
• The notice and summary of proposed changes has been amended to discuss the revised wording of section 35.5(f)
• Strikeout versions of QME form 105 and QME form106 and their related attachments, which provide information about how to use these QME panel request forms. As stated in the 2nd 15-day notice of changes, these forms and their attachments were revised from the versions posted during the first 15-day public comment period so those earlier versions are shown entirely in strikeout. The new, camera-ready format for each form and its attachment, as posted and distributed beginning on Oct.15 for public comment, remains unchanged
• An instruction is added to the Web page posting for both QME form 105 and QME form 106, to alert the public about how to open the related attachment document from inside the form.

Due to these additions made today to the QME regulations and forms made available to the public for comment, the 2nd 15-day public comment period has been extended to Nov. 6, 2008. All comments received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2008 will be considered.

Further information and the modified proposals can be found at http://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/DWCPropRegs/qme_regulations/qme_regulations.htm.

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