MICHAEL SULLIVAN & ASSOCIATES BLOG

Effective April 1, 2026, the Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) adopts a comprehensive and extensive set of new regulations governing utilization review (UR), independent medical review (IMR) and physician reporting. The regulations are available on the DWC's rulemaking page.

The changes are primarily driven by the legislative mandates of Assembly Bill (AB) 1124 and Senate Bill (SB) 1160, which were enacted to address complaints of excessive UR delays and denials. The overarching goals of the new regulations are to align the review process with SB 1160 and AB 1124, and to improve the process of the delivering medical treatment within workers’ compensation.

The Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC) revised regulations related to medical-legal evaluations effective Feb. 2, 2023. The regulations make changes to the rules for scheduling QME examinations and permanently adopt regulations allowing remote medical-legal evaluations. Specifically, the regulations make these changes to the medical-legal process:

On August 9, 2022, the Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) announced that all DWC district offices except Eureka will accept in-person walk-through documents beginning September 6, 2022, pursuant to CCR 10789. Eureka is permanently a virtual office and walk-through documents should be brought to the DWC Santa Rosa district office.