Unemployment compensation: disability benefits.

Existing law authorizes the Employment Development Department to administer the disability compensation program. Existing law requires the department, among other duties, to make disability benefit payments by checks drawn on a specified bank, as provided. The bill would remove the requirement to pay by check and thus allow the director to make these payments using electronic technology. Existing law requires a claim for disability benefits to be supported by a certification of a treating physician or practitioner, and defines a practitioner as a person duly licensed or certified in California acting within the scope of his or her license or certification who is a dentist, podiatrist, or as to normal pregnancy or childbirth, a midwife, nurse midwife, or a nurse practitioner. This bill would modify the definition of practitioner, as prescribed. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.