More California Unions Pushing Carve-Outs
More Unions Negotiating Carve-Outs: Top [12/22/06]
--By Jim Sams, WorkCompCentral Senior Editor
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Momentum is building to create new carve-out programs in California, with unions that represent hospital workers in Alameda County and police and firefighters in Long Beach negotiating their escape from the state's contentious workers' compensation system.
In Oakland, the Service Employees International Union Local No. 616 will file paperwork today or next week seeking permission from the Division of Workers' Compensation to negotiate with the Alameda County Medical Center to create a carve-out for about 2,200 hospital and clinic workers.
And in Southern California, the Long Beach Peace Officers' Association and Firefighters Association Local No. 372 received permission on Dec. 11 from the DWC to negotiate what could be the state's first carve-out for municipal employees "Work comp is obviously a nightmare and too many people get lost in the system and don't know how to maneuver through it," said Fran Jefferson, executive director of SEIU 616. "People end up going to lawyers who are overworked with too many cases or they cherry pick. Carve-outs are alternative dispute resolution systems that allow claims to be handled and settled outside the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, although workers retain the right to petition the WCAB if they want to. Union representatives say carve-outs will save their employers money while allowing workers to get around a litigious workers' compensation system that traps injured workers instead of treating their injuries and getting them back to work.
Jefferson said her union has already negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with the medical center, but it is pursuing a carve-out as a separate issue. She said union members -- besides wanting an alternative to the standard workers' compensation claims process -- hope to save the cash-strapped public hospital authority money that could be better spent on patient care. "Our overriding goal is to make sure that these public hospitals don't close," Jefferson said
In Long Beach, firefighters and police officers are hoping to get out of a utilization-review process that keeps officers off duty while they fight unnecessary denials of care, said John Ferrone, a West Lake Village attorney who represents union members in workers’ compensation claims. Ferrone said those disputes are enormously expensive for the city, because under Labor Code Section 4850 public safety workers receive 100% salary for up to a year while they are on temporary disability. "The city is losing money because their employees are off on 4850," Ferrone said. "They have a staffing issue and they have disputes that are not being resolved in a timely fashion."
Both the Alameda County and Long Beach carve-outs would use a network of medical providers agreed to by the employers and the unions. Ferrone and Jefferson both said that network doctors would be paid above fee schedule in exchange for better care, such as more face-to-face time with injured workers and more thorough reports that clearly lay out treatment plans.
The proposed carve-outs are part of a statewide union push for carve-out programs. As reported by WorkCompCentral on Dec. 12, a coalition of labor leaders hopes to make carve-outs a key part of collective bargaining negotiations in 2007.
Dan Rush, political director for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local No. 120, said his group is promoting a "revolutionary" model for carve-outs that would ask physicians to designate on first reports of injury whether an injured worker has suffered a minor injury that needs only some temporary disability during recovery, a major injury that may require some permanent disability or a catastrophic injury that is likely to result in a large disability award. “By signaling early on the likely extent of injuries, union leaders hope to avoid litigation and focus on healing and return-to-work,” Rush said. "We're creating an environment that is not antagonistic, and it shouldn't be antagonistic to the doctors who agreed to provide medicine in this fair and healing environment to our members," Rush said. "The providers are running from the industry and the problem with that is the good providers are running from the industry and the sleaze balls are staying in."
The union that represents Alameda County hospital workers intends to adopt Rush's plan of categorizing injuries early on, but the Long Beach police and firefighters -- which is not part of Rush's coalition -- does not.
Carve-outs are negotiated individually between employers and the unions that represent their workers, so a wide variety of plans might develop. Whatever form they take, one California medical provider network is already waiting in the wings to get the future union business.
California Healthcare Networks, which has 1,200 providers throughout the state, has signed an agreement to allow the unionization of its employees with hopes of winning contracts with unions and employers that enter into carve-out agreements, said Samuel T. Vidaurreta, founder and president of the company. Vidaurreta said about 40 employees of California Healthcare Networks and two other companies affiliated with the firm -- The Prospice Group and Astrum Systems -- would join a union under the deal. The three companies have signed a "neutrality agreement" that states they won't interfere with attempts to unionize the workers.
Vidaurreta said his company has deployed a standardized billing and scheduling software system used by all of its providers. The firm also offers regular training to ensure that its providers are proficient in American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine treatment guidelines. Vidaurreta said the goal of California Healthcare Networks is to give treatment that isn't tainted by the needs of defense attorneys or applicants' attorneys. "There need to be good reports that reflect what is wrong with the individual who walks into your office and have a pathway that will get them healed and get them back to work," he said.
In addition to this article, on the 12th of December, another article explaining new California health plans was published by WorkCompCentral. To learn more about the new union carve-out programs, please visit their website:http://www.workcompcentral.com/
