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Rising Claims and Safety Emphasis May Cause NFL Demise

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The thousands of lawsuits that have been filed nationwide, and the workers’ compensation claims filed by NFL players in California have triggered safety concerns that some say may lead to the end of the NFL. Bernard Pollard, the hard-hitting Baltimore Ravens safety told CBSSports.com recently that he doesn’t believe the league will be in existence in 30 years because of rules changes instituted in an effort to make the game safer, and the chance a player might die on the field as players continue to get stronger and faster.

“Thirty years from now, I don’t think it will be in existence. I could be wrong. It’s just my opinion, but I think with the direction things are going — where [NFL rules makers] want to lighten up, and they’re throwing flags and everything else — there’s going to come a point where fans are going to get fed up with it,” he told the website. “Guys are getting fined, and they’re talking about, ‘Let’s take away the strike zone’ and ‘Take the pads off’ or ‘Take the helmets off.’ It’s going to be a thing where fans aren’t going to want to watch it anymore.”

The issue of football safety was on the mind of President Barack Obama recently when he told The New Republic in an interview for its Feb. 11 issue that, if he had a son, he would think long and hard before allowing him to play the sport.. Obama told the magazine that football fans are going to have to wrestle with the fact that the game will probably change over time to try to reduce the violence. The president says that some of those changes might make football, in his words, “a bit less exciting” but that it will be much better for players. “And those of us who are fans maybe won’t have to examine our consciences quite as much,” he said.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello responded to Obama’s comments Sunday, saying the NFL has “no higher priority than player health and safety at all levels of the game.”

Pollard said he understands the movement to make the game safer for players, but coaches are looking for players who are “stronger and faster year in and year out. And that means you’re going to keep getting big hits and concussions and blown-out knees. “The only thing I’m waiting for … and, Lord, I hope it doesn’t happen … is a guy dying on the field. We’ve had everything else happen there except for a death. We understand what we signed up for, and it sucks,” he told the website.

Pollard has a reputation for big hits. He was fined $15,250 for unnecessary roughness last week for his third-quarter hit on New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker in the Ravens’ AFC Championship Game victory. Pollard received a 15-yard penalty on the play for striking an opponent in the head and neck area. He also forced a crucial fumble, however, by knocking running back Stevan Ridley out of that game. He was not penalized or fined for the hit on Ridley.

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2013 CAAA Convention Topics Focus on S.B. 863

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The California Applicants’ Attorney Winter 2013 Convention is now underway at the San Diego Sheraton and Marina Hotel. The annual meeting will continue until Sunday January 27. The focus on this years convention is “Navigating Your Way Through The Comp System Since SB 863.” Panelists on the first day of the event discussed Medical Control’s and MPNs as well as Discovery and Right to Privacy.

It was not unexpected that panelists anticipate constitutional challenges to the validity of some of the provisions of S.B. 863. The same view was expressed by panelists at the Employers Fraud Task Force presentation earlier this month. It is not clear who or when this challenge will take place, but the consensus is that the theory will involve the constitutional requirement for due process of law. Simply stated, there is a constitutional requirement for a dispute resolution mechanism that provides notice and and opportunity to be heard. The challenge to S.B. 863 will claim that the Independent Bill Review and the Independent Medical Review process does not achieve minimum standards of due process of law. The constitutional argument theorizes that the two administrative procedures do not allow claimants or the employer the ability to argue their case before the decision maker in either of these two administrative processes, and since there is no effective right to appeal before the WCAB on matters of expert opinion, the administrative process falls short of the constitutional requirement.

Panelists also discussed the discovery and privacy rights that changed under the new law. The provisions of LC 4903.6(d) now says that medical information that can not be sent to non-physician lien claimants without written authorization from the WCAB. WCAB Orders must specify what is to be disclosed, and findings that it is relevant. There will be a greater emphasis now on protecting the privacy rights of the injured worker. From the applicants’ standpoint, subpoenas that request “any and all” records would be over broad and subject to petitions to limit that discovery.

LC 5502(b) now includes “whether the injured employee is required to obtain treatment within a medical provider network” as an appropriate issue for an expedited hearing. Presenters claimed that applicant attorneys will now seek expedited hearings on MPN issues since S.B. 868 did away with the rights of the employer to transfer workers back into an MPN, and for that reason if they get out of the MPN, they will remain out indefinitely with “that” treating physician.

The 2013 CAAA Convention continues today and over the weekend. A topic for Friday is “New Ethical Considerations Under SB863” Conflicts of Interest – Dealing with the rules and potential problems – Attorneys, doctors and their staff…… Be aware! – What is an attorney’s legal obligation? On Saturday the topics will include “Utilization Review – UR: What about denied claims or partial denied claims? – Independent Medical Review – Employer to serve applicant attorney with all materials sent to IMR – Time limitations; what happens if review is untimely? – Is there a role for the AME or PQME in treatment disputes?”

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WCIRB Updates Experience Rating Plan Values for 2013

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Effective January 1, 2013, the California Workers’ Compensation Experience Rating Plan – 1995 (Experience Rating Plan) was updated to reflect new experience rating values to be utilized in the calculation of experience modifications effective on or after January 1, 2013. The new values include expected loss rates, which are updated every year, and revised primary credibility and excess credibility values, which are updated every few years. As a result, some employers will receive lower experience modifications than otherwise would have been the case, and some will receive a higher experience modification. Additionally, experience modifications for individual employers change from year to year based on a variety of factors such as changes in payroll, changes in claims, and overall changes within the employer’s industry classification.

The need for regular updates to experience rating credibility values was one of the findings of the Insurance Commissioner’s 2008 Experience Rating Task Force. Since then, the WCIRB has routinely reviewed Experience Rating Plan credibility values to ensure that the experience rating system operates fairly and efficiently. As the payroll and claims experience of California experience rated employers evolves, so too must the credibility values in order to maintain the Experience Rating Plan’s actuarial balance. The last change to credibility values was in 2010.

At the core of experience rating is a comparison of an employer’s actual claim costs to the average claims costs expected for the experience period of all employers of similar size and industry classification. As part of this comparison, the experience rating formula takes into consideration how much weight is applied to the actual claims experience of an individual employer. The weight, or credibility, in the experience rating formula is intended to reflect the statistical reliability of the employer’s past claims experience as a predictor of future claims experience.

High credibility means that more of an employer’s actual experience is used in the experience modification calculation. For larger employers, actual claims experience is predictive of that employer’s potential future claims experience; therefore, larger employers have higher credibility values. The experience of small employers does have some predictive value in determining the potential for future claims, however, their claims experience can be volatile and can be more a function of chance. As a result, small employers are assigned lower credibility values in the experience rating formula.

In 2012, the WCIRB proposed, and the Commissioner approved, changes to the credibility values based on an actuarial analysis of the most current individual employer loss and payroll experience available at the time. Consistent with this most recent experience, the credibility assigned to most employers’ actual claim history increased slightly effective January 1, 2013.

The adopted January 1, 2013 changes in credibility values are modest, and their impact on 2013 experience modifications is also modest. To estimate the impact of the proposed changes in credibility, the WCIRB re-computed the historical experience modifications for over 100,000 experience rated employers using the new credibility values. Based on this analysis, the WCIRB estimates that approximately 64% of all experience modifications will be impacted by 3 percentage points or less by the changes in credibility values and approximately 90% will be impacted by 10 percentage points or less.

In other words, for most employers, all else being equal, somewhat greater weight is being given to their own claim experience. Employers that have better than average experience will generally receive a lower credit experience modification in 2013 than they would have received in 2012. Conversely, employers that have poor experience will generally receive a higher experience modification.

Changes in experience modifications due to the changes in the underlying Experience Rating Plan credibility values do not increase the amount of total premium collected in the workers’ compensation system as the increases and decreases in experience modifications will generally offset each other in the aggregate.

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Study Predicts Increase In Medical Worker Musculoskeletal Injuries

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As U.S. health care goes high tech, spurred by $20 billion in federal stimulus incentives, the widespread adoption of electronic medical records and related digital technologies is predicted to reduce errors and lower costs — but it is also likely to significantly boost musculoskeletal injuries among doctors and nurses, concludes a Cornell University ergonomics professor in two new papers. According to the report summarized in Science Daily, the repetitive strain injuries will stem from poor office layouts and improper use of computer devices.

“Many hospitals are investing heavily in new technology with almost no consideration for principles of ergonomics design for computer workplaces,” said Alan Hedge, professor of human factors and ergonomics in Cornell’s College of Human Ecology’s Department of Design and Environmental Analysis. “We saw a similar pattern starting in the 1980s when commercial workplaces computerized, and there was an explosion of musculoskeletal injuries for more than a decade afterward.”

For a paper published in the Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 56th Annual Meeting, held Oct. 22-26 in Boston, Hedge and James asked 179 physicians about the frequency and severity of their musculoskeletal discomfort, computer use in their clinic, knowledge of ergonomics and typing skills. The most commonly reported repetitive strain injuries were neck, shoulder and upper and lower back pain — with a majority of female doctors and more than 40 percent of male doctors reporting such ailments on at least a weekly basis. About 40 percent of women and 30 percent of men reported right wrist injuries at a similar frequency.

“These rates are alarming. When more than 40 percent of employees are complaining about regular problems, that’s a sign something needs to be done to address it,” said Hedge. “In a lot of hospitals and medical offices, workplace safety focuses on preventing slips, trips and falls and on patient handling, but the effects of computer use on the human body are neglected.”

The gender differences, the authors write, appear to be in part because women reported spending about an hour longer on the computer per day than men.

In a second study of 180 physicians and 63 nurse practitioners and physician assistants in the same health system, published in a new volume, “Advances in Human Aspects of Healthcare” (CRC Press), more than 90 percent of respondents reported using a desktop computer at work. On average, they spent more than five hours per day using computers.

Fifty-six percent of doctors and 71 percent of nurse practitioners and physician assistants said their computer use at work had increased in the past year; 22 percent of doctors and 19 percent of nurse practitioners and physician assistants reported less time in face-to-face interactions with patients. Only about 5 percent of participants reported an “expert knowledge” of ergonomics, and more than two-thirds said they had no input in the planning or design of their computer or clinical workstation.

“We can’t assume that just because people are doctors or work in health care that they know about ergonomics,” Hedge said. “With so many potential negative effects for doctors and patients, it is critical that the implementation of new technology is considered from a design and ergonomics perspective.”

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Kaiser Permanente Announces New Occupational Medicine Regional Chief

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Kaiser Permanente Southern California announced that Sang Manoharan, MD, has been appointed regional chief of Occupational Medicine for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group. In his new role, Dr. Manoharan will lead Kaiser On-the-Job, Kaiser Permanente’s employer-based injury care health program.

“I am very pleased to be able to contribute to the value that Kaiser On-the-Job already brings, beyond workers’ compensation costs reduction, but most importantly, the opportunity to lead the most dominant employer-based health care strategy for injury care in the foreseeable future of California,” says Dr. Manoharan. “I am honored to be part of Kaiser On-the-Job, an integrated health care delivery system that increases effectiveness, boosts productivity, protects long-term health and lowers costs. This is coordination that delivers quantifiable results that no other provider can offer.”

In addition to overseeing Kaiser On-the-Job occupational injury care and return-to-work services, Dr. Manoharan will coordinate an integrated approach to care with Kaiser On-the-Job physicians, associates and health care professionals, providing other non-injury medical services including pre-placement/post-job-offer examinations; fitness-for-duty and return-to-work examinations; Department of Transportation examinations; among other medical screenings and services.

Dr. Manoharan will be responsible for the 19 dedicated occupational health centers located within Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California facilities, many of which are conveniently located on Kaiser Permanente campuses. Nationwide, Kaiser Permanente has 74 dedicated occupational health centers throughout California, Washington, Hawaii, Oregon and Colorado.

With Kaiser On-the-Job, any worker – regardless of health insurance membership – who is employed by a company that chooses this essential benefit as part of its health care strategy, is able to access Kaiser On-the-Job health care services. Some of these additional services include urgent and after-hours care, available 24 hours a day, every day; and coordinated clinical services such as lab testing, X-rays, pharmacy, specialty care and physical therapy, all within the Kaiser Permanente integrated care model. Some services are offered at Kaiser On-the-Job occupational health centers, and many others can be made available at the workplace.

With over 24 years of practice, for the past five and a half years, Dr. Manoharan served as chief of Occupational Health Services for Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center. He will be working closely with John T. Harbaugh, MD, Occupational Medicine physician director, Southern California Permanente Medical Group. Dr. Harbaugh has provided leadership to Kaiser-On-the-Job since 2001. As part of a new leadership structure for the program, Dr. Manoharan and Dr. Harbaugh anticipate continued program growth and delivering quality occupational medical care in Southern California.

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Prosecutors Provide Details on International Medical Fraud Ring

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An elaborate, international health-care fraud ring that stole millions from taxpayers started to come unraveled when an Ohio gynecologist called investigators after receiving insurance payments for male patients. Ultimately, according to the story in the Dayton Daily News, two California men went to federal prison as purported ringleaders of the operation, but not before making off with more than $13 million in Medicare payments for nonexistent medical services. In a case that illustrates a common health-care fraud scheme.Karen Chilyan and Eduard Oganesyan are serving eight and 11 years, respectively. At large are Lilit Galstyan, Julieta Ghazaryan and Marine Movsisyan, who were last week placed on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ most-wanted list. Federal prosecutors say these people were involved in an Armenian criminal network that billed Medicare for more than $48 million, using the stolen identities of doctors and patients from Ohio and 39 other states.

“This is the new face of organized crime,” Steven Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said. “It used to be what you saw in ‘The Godfather” but now it’s someone with Internet access stealing hundreds of millions of dollars. This money is being sucked right out of our health-care system.”

The bust was part of a nationwide sweep in 2010 in which 73 people were indicted in New York, Georgia, California and New Mexico. Overall, the fraud ring submitted more than $100 million in bogus Medicare claims. The group ripped pages straight from the medical fraud playbook, executing what federal investigators call a “drop box scheme.”

Here’s how the scam worked. Chilyan, Oganesyan and others in California first stole doctors’ identities, finding most of the basic information on the Internet. The hard part was getting Social Security numbers, although those were available on the black market. They then leased office space in Canfield, Ohio, and claimed it was occupied by those doctors. They also set up an empty storefront in Columbus for the gynecologist, along with other businesses in other states. True to the real estate axiom, Columbus and Canfield were chosen because of their locations. The doctors’ real offices were in Columbus and Cleveland, and the scammers needed a spot at least 60 miles away so their mail wouldn’t accidentally be sent to the real offices. Sometimes, the scammers rented an empty storefront as the business location. But often they used a private mailbox company which, unlike a post office box, gives the appearance of a street address while leaving a smaller paper trial. After registering the business with the state, scammers then registered each fake company with the federal government as a medical provider, often listing the mailbox as its address.

The next step was finding patients. Again, they used identity theft. Court records say Chilyan and Oganesyan used the identities of several Medicare recipients in Ohio. “A lot of the information is available for public websites for doctors. (For) the Medicare beneficiaries, there seems to be a stolen list that is pretty obtainable from the black market,” said John Leahy, special agent with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General in Cleveland. Scammers often call senior citizens pretending to be with Medicare and ask for their information. And just like that, they were in business.

Court documents say Chilyan and Oganesyan billed Medicare for more than $2.1 million between Feb. 25 and March 21, 2008, for two Ohio doctors. They received nearly $280,000, wired to investment accounts in the doctors’ names.Then they laundered the money, according to court records, setting up fake businesses to do so. They also deposited cash into casino accounts and withdrew it as gambling chips.When the suspicious gynecologist started receiving private insurance payments with men’s names, he called the HHS inspector general’s hotline. Special agents visited the address listed as the practice location in the government’s medical provider database. “When we checked the office out, it was an empty store room in Columbus,” said special agent in charge Verne Waldow, who supervises Leahy. “The doctor’s name was stenciled on the door in the strip mall. There were eviction notices stuffed into the mailbox and under the door.” By the time investigators shut off the money faucet, Chylan and Ogansyan had billed Medicare for more than $48 million. Nearly $13 million of that was paid out, according to the court documents.

Court records illustrate how lucrative the group’s scam was: Investigators seized three kilograms of gold pellets valued at $130,086 from a California home, along with jewelry and a watch valued at $14,500. As part of their sentencing, Chylan and Ogansyan were ordered to pay more than $10 million in restitution. Waldow said after these two men and 71 other people were rounded up in 2010, “the problem for the most part stopped with the false fronts.”

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Study Shows High Medical Costs for 20 Year Old Legacy Claims

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It is likely that more than 10% of the cost of medical benefits for the workplace injuries that occur this year will be for services provided more than two decades into the future. That percentage has been growing and might continue to grow. A new study by NCCI looks at workers compensation medical services provided beyond 20 years after the injury, with a view toward anticipating: which medical service categories will account for the largest shares of costs and future treatment and utilization that will drive those costs.

NCCI first looks at the demographics of claimants who are still being treated for job-related injuries that were suffered more than two decades ago. The focus then shifts from patients to their medical care, looking at medical costs by service and diagnosis categories. Some key findings concerning services provided from 20 to 30 years following the date of injury are as follows:

  • Patients are predominantly male, more so than can be explained by historical gender differences in the workforce
  • Deteriorating medical conditions of the more elderly claimants is not a main cost driver; indeed, claimants younger than age 60 cost more per year, per claimant, to treat than those older than age 60
  • Relative to services within the first 20 years after injury, care provided later has a significantly greater portion of cost going for prescription medications, supplies, home health services, and the maintenance of implants, orthotics, and prosthetics.

Because drugs account for a large proportion of late-term-care costs, prescription data can suggest the nature of late-term care. The study compares the share of WC medication costs for several specific drugs. It compares late-term-care experience with all WC medication costs in 2009 and includes the top 10 WC drugs, either overall or within late-term care:

  • The top drug, OxyContin, accounts for 6% of WC medication costs in 2009 and that share rises another 5 percentage points to 11% for late-term care
  • The shares for opioid chronic pain medications, such as Oxycodone (OxyContin, Percocet) and Fentanyl (Duragesic), are generally higher within late-term care than within all medication costs for 2009
  • The shares within late-term care for muscle relaxants, such as Skelaxin and Cyclobenzaprine HCL are substantially lower than their overall shares for 2009

The specific medications given late-term provide a further indication for the shift in focus from treating the loss of function to relieving pain.

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Vineyard Manager Gets Jail Time for Safety Violation

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Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced the resolution of a case involving the removal of a safety device from a tractor that killed a vineyard worker when the defendants pled no contest to a misdemeanor violation of Labor Code section 6425, which prohibits removal of a manufacturer’s safety device. The Honorable Peter Ottenweller sentenced defendant James Poole, 61, of Windsor, to 30 days in jail and 80 hours of community service work for an organization dedicated to worker safety. Additionally, Vino Farms, Inc. was ordered to pay restitution and fines totaling two-hundred thousand dollars ($200,000).

District Attorney Ravitch stated: “All workers have the right to expect that they will come home at the end of the workday and that their employers will keep in place all manufacturers’ safety devices on equipment used for work. Companies and supervisors who disable safety devices will be held accountable for the sake of workers who depend on them.”

The single misdemeanor charge resulted from an investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) which revealed that the victim was working alone at a local vineyard on a tractor that had its “kill switch” removed. (The “kill switch” causes the tractor’s engine to stop running and moving forward when the driver leaves the seat.) OSHA investigators concluded that on January 22, 2011, when Mr. Ambriz-Luquin tried to get out of the tractor’s narrow opening, his clothing was caught, and, without the kill switch operable, the tractor moved forward pinning him beneath it over night. The victim survived for several days before the injuries he sustained resulted in his death. OSHA discovered that Vino Farms, Inc.’s manager, James Poole, had ordered the safety device removed from the tractor seat.

As part of the plea agreement,Vino Farms, Inc. agreed to pay restitution to the family of the deceased victim in the amount of one-hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) and be placed on probation for two years. The company was ordered to pay an additional fine in the amount of seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) to the State of California, as well as twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) to Ag Safe, an organization dedicated to worker safety. An additional penalty in the amount of seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) was suspended, pending successful completion of probation by Vino Farms, Inc. Vino Farms, Inc. agreed to change some of its procedures to comply with worker safety laws and to strengthen some of its policies to ensure that its workers will be able to get emergency help when working alone.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Ann Gallagher White, and was investigated by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s Associate Engineer, Mark Harrington, by Senior Engineer, Steven Fenton and by OSHA Bureau of Investigation’s Mike Byrne.

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Hip Maker Considers $2 Billion Settlement Offer With Trial Pending in Los Angeles

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Bloomberg New reports that Johnson and Johnson which is fighting more than 10,000 lawsuits over its recalled hip implants, is negotiating a potential settlement with patients that may eventually total more than $2 billion, according to five people familiar with the matter. The world’s biggest seller of health-care products, offered to pay more than $200,000 a case, according to the people, a deal which could exceed $2 billion if most plaintiffs accept the terms. Lawyers for hip recipients have so far rejected the offer as too low, the people said.

In 2010, J and J recalled 93,000 all-metal hips worldwide, including 37,000 in the U.S., saying more than 12 percent failed within five years. Patients who sued contend they suffer pain and are immobilized by joint dislocations, infections and bone fractures. They alleged metal debris from the hips causes tissue death around the joints. The settlement talks probably won’t end until after the first trials of the lawsuits begin, starting next week, with more set for next month and May, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly about the talks.

J and J faced 10,100 suits over the hips through September. Most pretrial collection of evidence has been consolidated in federal court in Toledo, Ohio, where 7,240 cases are pending, and California state court in San Francisco, where more than 2,000 cases are filed. Other cases have been filed in state courts around the U.S. The three cases going to trial in the next few months may offer lawyers guidance on potential liability and damages. The first proceeding starts Jan. 23 in state court in Los Angeles; the second begins next month in state court in Chicago; and a third is slated for May in federal court in Toledo, Ohio.

The Los Angeles court trial involves a lawsuit by Loren Kransky of Montana, a retired corrections officer who got an ASR hip implanted on Dec. 5, 2007. He had the hip replaced in February 2012. Claims by Kransky, 65, include failure to warn, negligent recall and manufacturing defect. “Kransky asserts that his device released metal ions into his body and that as a result he developed elevated chromium and cobalt levels,” J and J said in a Nov. 21 court filing. The instructions with the implant “specifically warned that metal ions may be released from the hip implant into the body and that additional surgery may be required.”

A retiree and a military veteran, Kransky’s health conditions included “diabetes, neuropathy, arteriosclerosis and heart problems, some of which were determined to be associated with his exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam in the 1970s,” according to the filing.

Kransky’s case was chosen from those pending in the California Judicial Council Coordinated Proceeding before Judge Richard Kramer in San Francisco.

“Any comment relating to settlement that does not come from leadership, the court, or from the company itself, is speculative and uninformed,” said Skikos, of Skikos Crawford Skikos and Joseph in San Francisco and Cleveland.

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Task Force Issues Stop Orders for Dangerous Equipment

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Two Southern California garment businesses have been ordered to stop any work with dangerous equipment until the employers can ensure the equipment has the appropriate safeguards, the state Labor Enforcement Task Force says.

The task force is a multi-agency group formed to combat the underground economy.

The Central Valley Business Times reports that Vinh Loi Inc., a garment contractor with 26 workers employed at two locations in El Monte, had an industrial fabric cutter with improper safeguards to the cutting blade as well as the belt and pulley, the state says.

Kinary Inc., an El Monte denim washing business that employs 22 workers to dye and stone-wash jeans and other garments, had nine of its eleven industrial washers removed from service by Cal/OSHA until the proper safeguards in the belt and pulley workings on the washers are reinstalled, says the task force. Two of the same washers were not equipped with interlocks to prevent movement of the washer drums while the door is open, it says.

A worker was crushed to death in July 2011 after falling into an open, operating washing machine with missing interlocks at another denim washing shop in Los Angeles.

“Employers are required to ensure that their equipment is safe for workers to operate,” says Department of Industrial Relations Director Christine Baker, who oversees the task force. “When industrial machinery does not have the proper safeguards, workers can be killed or suffer serious injuries including amputation.”

Vinh Loi, Inc. is also under investigation by the Labor Commissioner’s Office and the Employment Development Department for labor law issues including cash pay and overtime as well as possible payroll tax violations. The state agencies have served notice of a pending audit to further investigate the business.

The task force includes investigators with the Department of Industrial Relations’ Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and Cal/OSHA, as well as the Employment Development Department, Contractors State License Board, the Board of Equalization, Alcohol and Beverage Control and the Bureau of Automotive Repair.

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