Workers’ compensation: qualified medical evaluators.

Assembly Member Wallis proposes new requirements for qualified medical evaluators in California's workers' compensation system, mandating standardized forms and enhanced quality controls for medical-legal evaluations. The legislation directs the Division of Workers' Compensation to create a template report form containing all statutory and regulatory requirements for complete medical-legal evaluations, along with a standardized form for communicating with panel evaluators before examinations.

The bill establishes a formal process for parties to challenge potentially inaccurate or incomplete medical-legal reports, requiring the medical director to review these submissions as part of an expanded quality assurance program. Annual evaluations of medical-legal reports, including both challenged reports and those rejected by workers' compensation judges, will be conducted and published on the division's website.

Under the new provisions, the administrative director must develop regulations by January 2027 implementing these changes while maintaining existing requirements for qualified medical evaluator appointments, including licensing, education, and practice standards. The legislation preserves current provisions for evaluator discipline and conflict of interest restrictions while adding structure around report submission and review processes.