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Walmart and Humana Consider Merger

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The emergence of talks between Walmart Inc. WMT 1.37% and Humana Inc. HUM 0.48% creates pressure on the health-care companies that haven’t yet made deals, amid the rapid-fire integration that is reshaping the business of managing health care.

A Walmart-Humana deal—which is far from assured, as the companies are in early-stage talks about a variety of possible options—would become the latest sign of the sector’s rapid move toward combinations that unite different businesses under one roof. It would come in the wake of the $69 billion deal between drugstore chain and pharmacy-benefit manager CVS Health Corp. and insurer Aetna Inc., and insurer Cigna Corp.’s CI -0.34% $54 billion agreement to acquire the biggest PBM, Express Scripts Holding Co. ESRX -0.93%

The spotlight is on remaining companies such as Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. WBA -3.14% and Anthem Inc., ANTM -0.80% as well as smaller health insurers that could broaden their roles into different sectors, analysts said.

“Whether you’re a payer, a retail clinic, a retailer, a PBM or a pharma company, you’re thinking, ‘how do I start to blur those lines and start playing across those lines,’ ” said Gurpreet Singh, Health Services leader at PwC.

U.S. drugstores are under pressure to move beyond dispensing prescriptions and selling candy, makeup and soda as Amazon.com Inc. AMZN 1.11% chips away at the companies’ retail business and cost-control efforts by insurers pressure drug margins. Amazon has also signaled it may go deeper into the health-care and pharmaceutical sectors, which would add to the threat.

Asked about the possibility of a deal during a call with analysts on Wednesday, Walgreens Boots Chief Executive Stefano Pessina said the pharmacy industry is in need of a major overhaul, but “I don’t believe that the change is only possible if you merge with a health plan.” He added: “The main transformation will be to adapt the stores to what the future customer will require.”

Walgreens has nevertheless been pursuing a big deal. Resistance from federal antitrust regulators derailed the company’s attempt last year to acquire rival pharmacy chain Rite Aid Corp. Instead, it agreed to buy about 2,000 Rite Aid stores for around $4 billion.

The Deerfield, Ill., company, with more than 13,000 stores in 11 countries, recently made an approach to drug distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp. ABC 1.29% , The Wall Street Journal reported in February. Negotiations have since stalled, but could restart, according to people familiar with the talks. Walgreens executives declined to discuss Amerisource discussions when asked this week on an earnings call.

In the insurance sector, analysts said, smaller companies like WellCare Health Plans Inc. WCG 1.77% have long been seen as targets for acquisition. Centene Corp. CNC 6.50% , a giant in the Medicaid space, has been growing rapidly through acquisitions, including its effort to take over nonprofit New York health insurer Fidelis Care. Centene “hasn’t been sitting still,” said Ana Gupte, an analyst with Leerink Partners LLC. “They have been growing well organically and inorganically.”

Centene also recently invested in a PBM known as RxAdvance, a move that CEO Michael Neidorff highlighted at recent investor conference. “You’ll be hearing a lot more about it,” he said.

UnitedHealth Group Inc., UNH -2.06% parent of the biggest U.S. insurer, is already vertically integrated, with its ownership of a growing roster of doctor groups and surgery centers as well as its own PBM. The health giant has remained on the M&A warpath in recent months, including its announcement in December that it will buy DaVita Inc.’s DVA -0.09% big physician group.

Anthem, for its part, has embarked on a vertical move without a big acquisition—it is starting its own PBM, set to launch in 2020, when its current PBM deal with Express Scripts ends. The insurer’s new CEO, Gail K. Boudreaux, has said she is focused on strengthening Anthem’s own operations and expects major savings and growth from the new PBM, which could serve Anthem’s fellow Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers, among other clients.

Asked about the Cigna deal at a recent investor conference, Ms. Boudreaux said it hadn’t changed Anthem’s thinking. “We love the capital efficiency of the model we have and feel really good about what we’ve done,” she said.

Anthem, which has deep local market share, has the scale to “go it alone for a while,” said Ms. Gupte. Down the road, analysts have said, Anthem may also have acquisition opportunities among other Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers, an option that would be far more difficult for other major national insurers that aren’t already Blue plans themselves. Anthem already has Blue plans in 14 states.

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Florida “Rogue Rehabs” Invade California

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The Orange County Register reports that Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas recently created a task force to handle abuses in the anti-addiction industry in the “Rehab Riviera.“

Rackauckas is hoping to repeat the success of Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg, who created a similar task force two years ago. Since then, Palm Beach officials have made 44 rehab-industry related arrests.

It also has driven many of the rogue rehabs out of that state – and straight to Southern California.

Aronberg recently spoke to reporters at the Orange County Register about sober living homes and treatment centers in Florida.

According to Aronberg “We’ve seen an influx of thousands of young people descend upon South Florida to enter rehab, and then leave only in an ambulance or body bag. Seventy-five percent of all individuals in private pay rehab in Florida come from out of state …. In the past two years, we have led a crackdown on fraud (and) abuse in the drug treatment industry.

“We’re seeing an exodus of bad players out of the county to other warm weather climates, including Orange County.”

He says that it starts with “deceptive marketing; the operator sends a free plane ticket (to the addict), which (in Florida) is a third-degree felony.”

“They lure you down here into a detox or patient recovery center. The individual always has insurance, either on their own or under Affordable Care Act exchanges. If they don’t, the marketer will pay for their insurance and often lie about the address” That’s how the fraud starts.

They go through detox, in-patient care (followed by) outpatient care in a sober home, which is an unregulated group home under the protection of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Fair Housing Act. Then, once insurance runs out, they either go home, live with their parents and find a job, or they relapse. And the illegal benefits – such as free rent, transportation and other things – begin anew.

He suggests impaneling a grand jury to look at the issue. “It gives it a local flavor. And I think that’s important. It also gives political strength behind your legislation.”

“In the meantime, enact a tough anti-patient brokering law at the state level.”

Number three, “lobby Congress to allow local governments to enact reasonable measures. In the meantime, consider following the leads of Prescott, AZ., Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, who are out sticking their necks out (with local ordinances).”

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Homeowner Protected by Exclusive Remedy Rule

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Lanelle D. Bergen, a property owner, hired KL Construction, Inc., a licensed general building contractor, to build an addition to her home and replace her garage.

Once the owner wrote an initial deposit check, KL Construction’s managing officer Kwok Wong then asked Bergen to write payment checks directly to individual workers, saying this would be easier for him as he would not have to deposit her checks and then write more checks paying workers; Bergen agreed.

KL Construction did not issue W-2 forms or 1099 forms to the workers reporting the income Bergen provided in those checks, did not make payroll deductions for the income, and did not include the income in payroll reports it submitted to its workers’ compensation insurance carrier, State Compensation Insurance Fund.

There is no evidence Bergen was aware of these omissions.

Wong negotiated an oral agreement with a subcontractor, Miguel Gonzalez of Miguel’s Stucco, to perform stucco work. Bergen wrote Gonzalez a check. Gonzalez brought Francisco Carrillo-Torres and two or three other people to help him do the stucco work. Torres slipped off of an improperly constructed scaffold and suffered severe injuries.SCIF agreed to accept the claim Torres subsequently submitted.

Torres filed a complaint against Bergen alleging one cause of action for premises liability and negligence. He contended Bergen was his employer on the home remodel project, but that he did not qualify for workers’ compensation coverage under her homeowner’s insurance policy, because he did not work the required number of hours.

The trial court issued an order granting summary judgment in favor of Bergen. The court of appeal sustained the dismissal in the unpublished case of Carrillo-Torres v. Bergen.

Torres contended that the trial court erred in applying the California Supreme Court’s decision in Privette to conclude Bergen was not liable for his injuries, because Bergen’s and KL Construction’s payroll practices “subverted the federal and state systems for taxation and benefits related to laborers.”

Torres did not explain his own two-year delay in submitting a workers’ compensation claim after he secured the representation of counsel. SCIF agreed to compensate Torres, approved medical treatment for him, and was collecting information to determine the amount of his benefits.

Torres cites no legal authority indicating that a delay defeats workers’ compensation exclusivity or creates an exception to the Privette rule. Case law confirms that the trigger for workers’ compensation exclusivity is a compensable injury.

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“Precision Medicine” to Replace “Trial and Error” Treatment

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A new Northwestern Medicine multi-site study says that scientists are bringing precision medicine to rheumatoid arthritis for the first time by using genetic profiling of joint tissue to see which drugs will work for which patients.

In the near future, patients won’t have to waste time and be disappointed with months of ineffective therapy, scientists said.

“Now we can start to predict which drugs a patient will respond to,” said co-senior author Harris Perlman, chief of rheumatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We can truly do precision medicine for rheumatoid arthritis. I believe this could be game changing.”

The paper was recently published as an uncorrected proof in Arthritis & Rheumatology and will be officially published in the journal in late May. Richard Pope and Deborah Winter also are lead Northwestern authors.

Treatment for rheumatoid arthritis now is trial and error. “We have so many different biologic drugs and there’s no rhyme or reason to give one drug versus the other,” Perlman said. “We waste $2.5 billion a year in ineffective therapy. And patients go through 12 weeks of therapy, don’t respond and get upset.”

Scientists in the multi-site study were the first in the U.S. to use ultrasound-guided therapy to take a tissue biopsy in the affected joint. In the past, blood samples were used to try to determine the effectiveness of the therapy and disease progression.

“It’s just like oncology, where you go to the tumor,” Perlman said. “Why go anywhere else? In rheumatoid arthritis, we’ve never gone to the target organ.” Improved ultrasound guided techniques make the new technique possible, Perlman said, noting joint biopsies began in Europe about six years ago.

The next goal is to predict which patients will have the best response – based on their genetic signature – to a specific drug.

In a new study, researchers are taking joint biopsy tissue from patients at the start of a new therapy and then six weeks later to see if they can find a predictor gene sequence that will clearly identify which patients respond to a particular therapy.

“The idea is to develop gene sequences to predict whether a patient will respond or not,” Perlman said. “Our goal is that this procedure will become the standard of care of for all patients with rheumatoid arthritis.”

The study was supported by grants from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Aging and the National Cancer Institute, all of the National Institutes of Health and the Reumatology Research Foundation.

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Some Prefer State Over Federal Courts in Opiate Litigation

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There are hundreds of cities and counties involved in the mass opioid litigation being hammered out in Ohio. But not all of the lawyers who are bringing these actions want in on the cases consolidated there in the federal district court before Judge Polster.

For example, Pegi Block wishes them the best. But for now, the Houston prosecutor has no interest in joining their effort.

Harris County Texas, where Block is an assistant county attorney, sued opioid manufacturers and drug distributors in December, alleging – like other plaintiffs around the country – that they flooded communities with addictive painkillers while downplaying the risk of the medications.

But the county, the country’s third largest, is fighting to keep its case in state court and separate from the so-called multidistrict litigation being overseen by a federal judge in Cleveland.

“The damages were incurred here,” Block said in an interview at the county attorney’s Houston offices. “We believe that our judge, our county, our juries in Harris County not only have the right, but that they should be the ones to decide the fate of this lawsuit. This is where it happened.”

Harris County is one of at least two dozen counties, cities, and towns pursuing cases in state court apart from the national litigation.

They are drawn to the local judges and juries in their home courts, experts say, and fear getting lost in the crowd of plaintiffs in the national case, particularly if claims brought by states are eventually going to be considered in a global settlement.

But there are risks, too, including a loss of influence in negotiating that potential settlement and a lack of resources to wage a legal battle against deep-pocketed defendants.

Many of the defendants – which include opioid manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies – would rather wage the battle in one court. But they face an ever-growing legal barrage, as public officials at all levels of government aim to wring money from the companies and show their constituents that they are fighting an addiction crisis killing tens of thousands of people each year.

There are many other suits around the country. About a dozen states have filed their own cases, and some Native American tribes have sought to keep cases in state or tribal courts.

In Louisiana, an attorney has filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of children born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, which occurs when babies are exposed to opioids during pregnancy.

In Kentucky, two rural health clinics have sued drug makers in federal court. More than 40 state attorneys general are also investigating prescription opioid players but have not filed a suit.

“Generally speaking, counties would prefer to be in state court, but they can only be in state court where there’s a jurisdictional basis to be in state court,” said Paul Hanly, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys negotiating the MDL, who is also representing Connecticut municipalities and New York counties suing in their respective state courts.

There are strategic issues at play as well, experts say. Suing in state court means local officials are more likely to get familiar judges who know firsthand how a given place has been affected by the opioid crisis. And some officials think they might be able to get ahead of the national litigation – so they can either get a separate settlement or go to trial before a global settlement is reached. Already, a trial date has been set for May 2019 in a state case brought by Oklahoma.

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California Spends $738M on Ineligible Medi-Cal Enrollees

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California signed up an estimated 450,000 people under Medicaid expansion who may not have been eligible for coverage, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ chief watchdog.

In a Feb. 21 report, the HHS’ inspector general estimated that California spent $738.2 million on 366,078 expansion beneficiaries who were ineligible. It spent an additional $416.5 million for 79,055 expansion enrollees who were “potentially” ineligible, auditors found.

Auditors said nearly 90% of the $1.15 billion in questionable payments involved federal money, while the rest came from the state’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. They examined a six-month period from Oct. 1, 2014, to March 31, 2015, when Medicaid payments of $6.2 billion were made related to 1.9 million newly eligible enrollees.

There were limitations to the California review, however. The audit extrapolated from a sample of 150 beneficiaries. The authors reported a 90% confidence level in their results – whereas 95% would be more common. That meant that the number of those ineligible could have been as low as 260,000 or as high as 630,000.

“If HHS has a strong reason to believe that California is systematically making enrollment errors, it would be helpful to show that in a more robust analysis,” said Ben Ippolito, a health care economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “The federal government should ensure that states are being good stewards of federal money.”

Nonetheless, the audit highlighted weaknesses in California’s Medicaid program, the largest in the nation with 13.4 million enrollees and an annual budget topping $100 billion, counting federal and state money. Medicaid covers 1 in 3 Californians.

The inspector general found deficiencies in the state’s computer system for verifying eligibility and discovered errors by caseworkers. The Medicaid payments cited in the report covered people in the state’s fee-for-service system, managed-care plans, drug treatment programs and those receiving mental health services.

California’s Department of Health Care Services, which runs Medi-Cal, said in a statement that it agreed with nearly all of the auditors’ recommendations and that the agency “has taken steps to address all of the findings.” In a written response to the inspector general, California officials said several computer upgrades were made after the audit period and before publication of the report that should improve the accuracy of eligibility decisions.

During the audit period, 12 enrollees in the sample group had incomes above 138% of the federal poverty line, making them ineligible financially for public assistance, according to the report. In other instances, beneficiaries were already enrolled in Medicare, the federal health insurance for people 65 and older or who have severe disabilities, and did not qualify for Medi-Cal. One woman indicated she didn’t want Medi-Cal but was enrolled anyway.

In a similar audit released in January, the inspector general estimated that New York spent $26.2 million in federal Medicaid money on 47,271 expansion enrollees who were ineligible for coverage. (The sample size there was 130 enrollees.) Overall, New York had far fewer expansion enrollees and related spending compared to California.

Audits of other states’ records are planned.

Nationwide, Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program designed for the poor, is the country’s largest health insurance program, covering 74 million Americans. In the past year, Republican efforts to reduce Medicaid funding and enrollment have sparked intense political debates and loud protests over the size and scope of the public program.

The California audit didn’t request a specific repayment from the state, but the findings were sent to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for review. CMS officials didn’t return a request for comment.

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DWC Suspends 27 More Vendors

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The Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) has suspended 27 more medical providers from participating in California’s workers’ compensation system, bringing the total number of providers suspended to 234.

The most notorious on the list is Leland G. Whitson, a Redondo Beach physician, who was convicted in federal court in 2014 of making false statements affecting a health care program.

Whitson, who served as the medical/clinical director at Atlantic Health Services of Long Beach, participated in a scheme that enrolled high school and middle school students in its substance abuse counseling program without regard for the students’ medical necessity. Whitson surrendered his medical license in 2017.

Nine others on the list worked as substance abuse recovery counselors at Atlantic Health Services of Long Beach.

DOJ officials alleged that Atlantic Health Services was paid more than $46 million after it submitted false and fraudulent claims to the Medi-Cal program for group and individual substance abuse counseling services during a 10-year period through April 2013.

The indictment also alleged that Atlantic Health billed for services provided to students who did not have substance abuse issues and did not qualify for Medi-Cal, billed for counseling sessions that had not been conducted and falsified documents and forged student signatures on documents, among other allegations.

Seventeen other physicians on the DWC list were suspended as a result of the loss of their license to practice medicine. None of them were charged with crimes related to insurance fraud.

Many lost their licenses for being impaired as a result of drugs or health problems, gross negligence, sexual misconduct with patients or failing to comply with the terms of probation in prior disciplinary matters.

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UCSF Surgeon Convicted on Oxycodone Charges

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Dr. Christopher Dean Owens was arrested in Indiana on July 11th, 2017, as part of the largest health care fraud enforcement action in the Department of Justice’s history. The former San Francisco vascular surgeon initially entered a not guilty plea on the drug charges, 36 counts of distributing oxycodone.He worked at the university-affiliated Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco

Owens’ profile on the university website said he is a 1998 graduate of Indiana University’s school of medicine and listed nine research grants and 70 published studies under his name. Another site listed him as a specialist in vascular surgery, aneurysms, deep vein thrombosis and diseases of the carotid artery.

One of his alleged victims, Danielle Pattillo, was found dead in her apartment under what investigators called suspicious circumstances. 35 year old Danielle Pattillo worked at the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center with Owens. She mysteriously died in what investigators initially thought was a mere drug overdose.

But Paul Pattillo, who was in the midst of a divorce with Danielle, said she had become involved with Owens. She was found deceased and he was the last person who was with her.

Owens was immediately placed on investigatory leave by the University, UCSF fired him five months later after he was booked on local drug charges. But those charges with the San Francisco District Attorney’s office never stuck.

DEA agents also arrested Owens as part of the nationwide crackdown on fraudulent opioid prescriptions spearheaded by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The federal indictment alleged that between September of 2012 and June of 2015, Owens, who had moved to Indiana, intended to act outside the course of usual professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose when he prescribed oxycodone on numerous occasions. In sum, Owens is charged with 36 counts of distributing oxycodone, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(C).

Owens pleaded guilty to Count 36 of the indictment in open court in San Francisco this month, but the court may consider evidence relating to Counts 1 through 35 at sentencing. Judge Alsup scheduled Owens’s sentencing hearing for July 17, 2018, at 2:00 pm. The maximum statutory penalty for the violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(C) is 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $1,000,000 plus restitution, if appropriate.

“I just think this shows that the *federal* courts are going to take this seriously and start cracking down and they need to,” said Pattillo.

His California Physicians and Surgeons certificate was revoked by the Board of Medicine in June, 2017.

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DIR Publishes Progress Report on Anti-Fraud Efforts

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The DIR issued a progress report on its anti-fraud efforts, including updates on the suspension of 227 medical providers from treating California’s injured workers and the dismissal of 292,000 illegitimate liens with claims valued at over $2.5 billion.

“DIR’s anti-fraud efforts have allowed us to remove fraudulent providers and their claims for payment from the system, with the aim to improve services and reduce premium costs,” said DIR Director Christine Baker. “Our fraud prevention work also involves identifying fraudulent activity through data analytics and defending anti-fraud laws in court.”

DIR’s efforts to eliminate medical provider fraud and illegitimate liens were bolstered by two new laws effective January 1, 2017:

– SB 1160 requires DIR to automatically stay liens belonging to providers who have been indicted or charged with crimes until the disposition of criminal proceedings.

According to this provision, 465,000 liens filed by or on behalf of criminally charged providers have been automatically stayed. These liens have been designated “4615” in DWC’s electronic adjudication management system (EAMS) to alert workers’ compensation judges and parties of the action.

23,000 active and pending liens filed by or on behalf of 28 suspended providers have been consolidated for adjudication in special lien proceedings. 10,000 active and pending liens are being processed for consolidation. 30,000 liens filed by or on behalf of suspended providers have been voluntarily dismissed.

– AB 1244 requires the Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) Administrative Director to suspend any medical provider, physician or practitioner from participating in the workers’ compensation system when convicted of fraud.

DWC has adopted provider suspension regulations and has suspended 227 medical providers. Twenty-one providers were issued notices that their suspension will occur in 30 days unless appealed. A total of 527 who qualify for suspension under Labor Code section 139.21 have been identified.

More detail on DIR’s fraud prevention efforts has been posted online, including information on suspended providers and dismissed liens.

DIR’s Anti-Fraud Unit operates within the Office of the Director. The unit identifies providers who are subject to suspension and assists with lien dismissals, stays and consolidations. Anti-Fraud Unit research and investigative work uses data analytics to aid criminal prosecutors throughout the state and its attorneys handle legal challenges to anti-fraud laws.

At the direction of the Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, DIR and the Department of Insurance convened working groups in 2016 to gather stakeholder input and evidence of fraudulent activity in the workers’ compensation system. DIR issued a report in January 2017 on the recommendations to combat fraud and provided an update on anti-fraud activities.

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WCAB En Banc Approves Electronic Signatures on Lien Forms

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A WCJ issued a Findings of Fact wherein she found that lien claimant Monrovia Memorial Hospital is not barred from proceeding on its lien due to a “dismissal” notation in the Electronic Adjudication Management System (EAMS) pursuant to Jose Guillermina Rodriguez v. Garden Planting Co., et al. (2017) 82 Cal.Comp.Cases 1390 (Appeals Bd. en banc).

The WCJ then found that lien claimant had until the close of business at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, July 3, 2017 to file a lien claim declaration pursuant to Labor Code section 4903.05.

Defendant contends that lien claimant’s lien is dismissed by operation of law because its section 4903.05(c) declaration was not timely filed before the close of business, i.e., 5:00 p.m., on Friday,June 30, 2017 pursuant to section 4903.05, subsection (c)(2); and because it was unsigned in violation of subsection (c)(3).

The Appeals Board issued an en banc decision in the case of Hernandez v Henkel Loctite Corporation, determining that Labor Code section 4903.05(c) declarations filed after the close of business at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, June 30, 2017 through the close of business at 5:00 p.m. on Monday July 3, 2017 are timely filed.

Labor Code section 4903.05(c)(2) states that lien claimants “shall have until July 1, 2017” to file the declaration identified in Labor Code section 4903.05(c)(1), thereby establishing the last date for performance of an act required by statute as July 1, 2017, a Saturday.

When the last date for performance of an act required by any workers’ compensation statute falls on a weekend or holiday, “the act or response may be performed or exercised upon the next business day.” (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, § 10508; see Code Civ. Proc., § 12a(a) and Gov. Code, § 6707.)

The Appeals Board clarified that pursuant to the plain language in Labor Code section 4903.05(c)(2) and WCAB Rule 10770.7, declarations filed at or before 5:00 p.m. on the next business day, Monday, July 3, 2017, are timely filed.

Another issue discussed in dicta was the validity of an electronic signature rather than a wet signature on lien documents filed in EAMS. “We note that our rules require all liens, including the supportive required documentation, to be electronically filed on an e-form approved by the Appeals Board and submitted by the Administrative Director’s electronic filing or JET-filing procedures. (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, § 10770(b)(1)(A), (B), and (C)(i).) The Administrative Director’s approved electronic filing technical requirements10 allow the use of an ‘S Signature,’ which shall be ‘rebuttably presumed to be that of the individual whose name is on the document signature line.’ (BR-16 S Signatures; Guide, p. 42.) Defendant compares section 4903.05(c) declarations to settlement documents; however, settlement documents require a ‘wet’ signature. (See BR-18 Wet/Actual Signatures [‘The following documents will require actual wet/actual signatures(s) be used: Scanned in signed settlement documents.’]; and Guide, p. 42.) The electronic signature rules and procedures adopted by the Administrative Director are consistent with California’s statutory rules of procedure. (See Civ. Code, §§ 1633.2, 1633.7.)”

En banc decisions of the Appeals Board are binding precedent on all Appeals Board panels and WCJs. (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, § 10341; City of Long Beach v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd. (Garcia) (2005) 126 Cal.App.4th 298, 313, fn. 5 [70 Cal.Comp.Cases 109]; Gee v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd. (2002) 96 Cal.App.4th 1418 [67 Cal.Comp.Cases 236].) This en banc decision is also adopted as a precedent decision pursuant to Government Code section 11425.60(b).

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