AB 1643: Workers’ compensation: permanent disability apportionment.

Existing workers compensation law generally requires employers to secure payment of workers compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, or in the course of, employment. An employer is liable only for the percentage of the permanent disability directly caused by the injury arising out of, and occurring in the course of, employment.

Existing law requires apportionment of permanent disability to be based on causation, and a physician who prepares a report addressing the issue of permanent disability due to a claimed industrial injury is required to address the issue of causation of the permanent disability. The physician is required to make an apportionment determination by finding the approximate percentage of the permanent disability that was caused by the direct result of injury arising out of and occurring in the course of employment, and the approximate percentage of the permanent disability that was caused by other factors both before and subsequent to the industrial injury, including prior industrial injuries.

This bill would prohibit apportionment of permanent disability, in the case of a physical injury occurring on or after January 1, 2017, from being based on pregnancy, menopause, osteoporosis, or carpal tunnel syndrome. The bill would also prohibit apportionment of permanent disability, in the case of a psychiatric injury occurring on or after January 1, 2017, from being based on psychiatric disability or impairment caused by any of those conditions.

The bill would also provide, notwithstanding any other law, for injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2017, that the impairment ratings for breast cancer and the aftereffects of the disease, known as sequelae, shall in no event be less than comparable ratings for prostate cancer and its sequelae.