Oakland – The California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) will conduct a webinar from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. on October 4 to help workers’ comp claims, medical and legal professionals gear up for the January 1 implementation of the new Medical Treatment Utilization Schedule (MTUS) Drug Formulary mandated by AB 1124.

The state Division of Workers’ Compensation issued a slightly modified version of the Formulary regulations for what should be the final 15-day comment period on September 7, so comments on the modifications are due September 22.  Meanwhile, the clock is ticking down to the January 1, 2018 effective date for the Formulary, so once the regulations are adopted, stakeholders will need to get up to speed on the new rules and details quickly.  To help in that regard, CWCI President Alex Swedlow, General Counsel Ellen Sims Langille, and Claims & Medical Director Denise Niber will present the 90-minute webinar, which will include:

– Details on which drugs will be subject to prospective utilization review (UR) and which will be subject to retrospective UR.

– A line-item review of each new Formulary regulation to show exactly how the Formulary is designed to function.

– The new time requirements that will be applicable to Formulary medical dispute resolution.

– The requirements for the phased transition of “legacy claims” into the Formulary.

– Scenarios to show how the Formulary will interact with the 30-day pass-through provisions of SB 1160 and other elements of existing law.

– A review of CWCI’s research on the potential effect of the Formulary on UR costs.

– A Q&A session with the panelists to wrap up the program and address outstanding issues and concerns.

The webinar is free to employees of CWCI member companies, $50 for all others, but pre-registration is required.  To register, CWCI members should log on to www.cwci.org, select “Store” on the top of the home page, click seminars from the drop-down menu, then click the Register button and complete the form.  (Members who do not have an  account can  select “Your Account” at the top of the home page, click “Add me as a Member User” from the pull-down menu, complete the form, then use the information they entered to log in and complete a webinar registration.) Others who are not CWCI member company employees may go to the seminar section of the online Store, click the Register button at the bottom of the page and complete the registration form, including their payment information.

Claims and medical bill review professionals who attend the session are eligible for 1.5 hours of credit toward Department of Insurance workers’ compensation certification requirements. CWCI also is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider (#2591), so legal professionals will be eligible for 1.5 hours of MCLE/Legal Specialization credits toward State Bar requirements.