Workers' compensation: medical provider networks study.

Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee, as defined, for injuries sustained in the course of employment. Existing law requires an employer to provide medical treatment that is reasonably required to cure or relieve an employee from the effects of the injury. Existing law allows employers to create networks of medical treatment providers to send employees to for treatment. Existing law sets out criteria for these networks and exceptions for when an employee may be treated outside the network. Existing law establishes the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation to conduct a continuing examination of the workers' compensation system. This bill would require the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation, on or before January 1, 2023, to submit a study to the Legislature, the committees of the Senate and Assembly with jurisdiction over workers' compensation, and the Division of Workers' Compensation on delays and access to care issues in medical provider networks. The bill would require the study to compare specified data for injury claims in which a worker was treated by a medical provider network to that data for injury claims in which a worker was treated by a provider who is not part of a medical provider network.