A lengthy hearing in the California Assembly on Wednesday indicated that one of the Capitol's longest-running political wars is being reignited. It's over the rules governing workers compensation, the multibillion-dollar system that provides medical care, rehabilitation and financial support to those with work-related injuries and illnesses, what those in the Capitol call "work comp."

Sacramento Bee
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During the next 12 months, employers say cost containment is their number one workers’ compensation insurance concern, a new study shows. Some 59 percent of employers say they are very or somewhat concerned about cost containment in 2012. Employers also expressed concerns about increasing exposures, renewals and rising fraud behaviors.

Insurance Journal
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California employers' costs of providing workers' compensation insurance rose slightly in 2011, but are scarcely half of what they were before then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature enacted a major overhaul of the system in 2004.

Sacramento Bee
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Attorney Christopher Asvar believes he has secured the highest known workers’ compensation insurance settlement in California history, totaling $8.9 million on behalf of a Antonio Enriquez, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2004 at the age of 18 after falling from a scaffold.

Insurance Journal
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Common surgeries for workplace injuries generally cost less in states that have adopted per-procedure fee schedules, versus states that don’t use fee schedules, according to a recent report by a Massachusetts-based industry research group. The Workers Compensation Research Institute of Cambridge, Mass., examined medical cost data from 17 high-population states between 2003 and 2009.

Healthcare Finance News
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California Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su’s aim is to send a message to the state’s underground economy. The message is that the principals of companies with shady employment practices, such as those who try to cut costs by under-reporting employees or employee wages to save on workers’ compensation premiums, may face jail time.

Insurance Journal
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Callifornia regulators have settled an enforcement action against GeoVera Insurance Co. after receiving complaints from earthquake insurance policy holders. GeoVera will pay a $235,000 fine and make changes in its underwriting procedures, Department of Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said.

Los Angeles Times
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Workers' compensation writers are taking steps to improve the profitability of the troubled line, industry experts said. From 2006 to 2010, workers' compensation premiums fell by about 30%, while profitability dropped, said Ed Keane, senior financial analyst at A.M. Best Co. "Rates are clearly underwater," said David Sandler, chief operating officer of U.S. casualty for American International Group's Chartis, the second-largest workers' comp writer.

Insurance News Net
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