Senate committee advances first of several workers' compensation reform bills after testimony from injured workers and attorneys

Sen. John Payton introduced a package of five workers' compensation bills (referred to in committee as SB 284 through SB 288) and summarized a set of proposed changes he said were intended to rebalance a system he described as originally created as a "grand bargain" between employers and workers.

Central to the hearing was Senate Bill 284, which would alter current rules limiting an injured worker's ability to change treating physicians. Under existing law, a claimant generally gets a one‑time change of physician in the lifetime of a claim; SB 284 would permit a claimant to change treating physicians "no more than once per year" and would allow established primary care physicians to participate in the workers' compensation network when a claimant already has a bona fide doctor–patient relationship. Sponsor testimony and…