The DWC has posted the new Medical-Legal Fee Schedule (MLFS) on its website . The documents include the final text of amendments to the Medical-Legal Fee Schedule regulations, as well as forum comments and the DWC response, and action to the comments.

Some of the changes include:

– – Clarification of the Physician’s obligation when records are received without an attestation.
– – Clarification on billing for records previously reviewed under ML202.
– – Deletion tf the billing code ML206 related to the unreimbursed supplemental report.
– – Addition of the ability of physicians who are certified as Qualified Medical Evaluators in the specialty of Internal Medicine or who are board certified in Internal Medicine to use modifiers 97 & 98 for toxicology and oncology evaluations.

The industry in general reacted with some consternation about the new MLFS, and had questions about implementation of the Schedule.

Apparently in response, the DWC has posted the recordings of the Question and Answer Meetings held by Zoom on April 13 and April 20 regarding the new Medical-Legal Fee Schedule for the workers’ compensation system.

The links to the recorded sessions, which answered questions from stakeholders regarding the implementation of the fee schedule, can be found on the DWC website.

The Medical-Legal Fee Schedule, which became effective on April 1, 2021, is set forth at California Code of Regulations, title 8, sections 9793-9795.