Errata: Bulletin 18-13 Summary of Enacted Legislation

The summary of AB 2802 (Friedman) in Bulletin 18-13 stated that the new Insurance Payment Intercept Program set to take effect 1/1/20 “requires workers’ compensation insurers to cooperate with the Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) to identify injured workers who are behind on child support payments.”  That summary failed to note a late amendment to the bill that expressly excluded workers’ compensation claims from the new requirement [Ins. Code §13550 (c)(7)], while at the same time adding a provision that, “This section does not prohibit an insurer from cooperating voluntarily with the Department of Child Support Services to identify claimants who are also obligors who owe past-due child support and report those claimants to the Department of Child Support Services.” [Ins. Code §13550(h)]

Existing law (Civil Procedure Code §704.160 and Family Code §5246) already allows DCSS to obtain an order directing a claims administrator to withhold up to 25 percent of an injured worker’s TD (and to pay the withheld amount to the department) without WCAB approval or filing a lien.  Nothing in AB 2802 alters the obligation to withhold TTD if an assignment order is in place; but otherwise there is no new requirement to identify, report, or withhold. 

The Institute regrets any confusion that our summary of AB 2802 may have caused.

BY/