178 Medical Providers Suspended from California’s Workers’ Comp System

The California Department of Industrial Relations’ Division of Workers’ Compensation and DIR’s Anti-Fraud Unit suspended 178 medical providers during the first eight months of 2022.

Providers are suspended from the workers’ compensation system when they have been convicted of fraud-related crimes, have been suspended from the Medicare or Medicaid programs due to fraud or abuse or have lost their professional license.

Since 2017, a total of 649 providers have been suspended from participating in California’s workers’ comp system.

DWC has also initiated new lien consolidation cases estimated at $75 million for those providers that were convicted of a fraud-related crime in 2022. During lien hearings, the liens of medical providers who unable to prove the billing is legitimate are dismissed. A total of 63,000 liens have been dismissed since 2017 with a value of nearly $775 million.

There are currently 86 criminally charged providers with 516,000 liens designated as stayed. The stays prevent charged providers from seeking payment for their liens while the criminal case is pending.