Workers' compensation: vocational expert fee schedule.

Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment. Existing law requires the administrative director, after public hearings, to adopt and revise periodically official fee schedules that establish reasonable maximum fees paid for, among other things, medical services, medicines, and medical supplies. Existing law authorizes the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board to determine and allow certain expenses as liens against any award of compensation. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2013, the administrative director to adopt, after public hearings, a fee schedule that establishes reasonable hourly fees paid for services provided by vocational experts. This bill would prohibit a vocational expert from being paid, and prohibit the appeals board from allowing, vocational expert fees in excess of those that are reasonable, actual, and necessary.