What changed, plainly

August 17, 2026

What the DWC Wants to Change About QME Rules: Remote Offices, Exam Timing, Replacement Panels

The DWC has proposed amendments to the QME regulations — exam-administration time requirements, eligibility for retired physicians, office-location rules with parameters for remote-only listings, online panel selection for UEBTF cases, and additional replacement-panel criteria. The public-comment window closed May 15; formal rulemaking is the next step.

July 23, 2026

Cal/OSHA Pushes Heat-Illness Prevention as Summer Peaks — What It Means for a Claim

Cal/OSHA is running summer heat-illness outreach with a focus on young and agricultural workers. The four things every employer owes outdoors — water, shade, training, emergency response — and how a heat injury becomes a compensable claim.

July 23, 2026

DWC Raises the Medical Mileage Rate to 76¢ — Effective July 1, 2026

The DWC has increased the medical and medical-legal mileage reimbursement rate to 76 cents per mile for travel on or after July 1, 2026 — up 3.5 cents — tracking the IRS rate under Labor Code §4600. It applies regardless of the date of injury.

July 23, 2026

The Numbers Behind the SIBTF Rewrite: $34.5M to $446.9M in a Decade

CHSWC’s 2025 annual report carries the cost curve that produced SB 171: SIBTF cases opened up more than 5-fold since FY 2014-15 with a 72% spike in the final year, total fund costs up from $34.5 million to $446.9 million, and the average amount paid per claim up from $13,699 to $80,814 — all funded by assessments on California employers.

July 13, 2026

SB 171 Rewrites the Subsequent Injuries Fund: WPI Doors, a Hard Deadline, Locked Evidence

Effective July 13, 2026, SB 171 rewrote Labor Code §4751 and added §§4754.1–4754.2: SIBTF entry thresholds are now whole-person-impairment percentages measured after apportionment, preexisting disability must be proven by evidence that existed at the time of the new injury, and applications face a five-year/six-month statute of limitations that liberal construction cannot extend.

July 8, 2026

Want to Become a QME? October Exam Applications Are Due August 19

The DWC is accepting applications for the next Qualified Medical Evaluator competency examination, administered in person October 3–9, 2026. Applications must be postmarked by August 19 — and applicants should know the filings are public records.

June 24, 2026

En Banc: What a Judge May — and May Not — Do With Your C&R (Gaines v. ABM Aviation)

The Appeals Board’s June 24, 2026 en banc decision in Gaines v. ABM Aviation confirms that no comp settlement is enforceable without WCAB approval and that judges must review adequacy — then rescinds one judge’s orders across twenty-four consolidated C&R cases and disqualifies the judge for expressed bias, drawing the line between adequacy review and overreach.

May 21, 2026

What the State’s Own Data Says: IMR Overturns Fall to 10.2%, and RAND Maps the QME Bench

Two state-commissioned reports landed in May 2026: the DWC’s IMR annual report — 201,037 applications, a 10.2% overturn rate, and the categories that actually flip — and a RAND study of 1.75 million QME panel assignments showing where California’s med-legal bench grew after the 2021 fee schedule and where it is still too thin to field a panel.