Section 138.6 Of Chapter 5. Division Of Workers’ Compensation From California Labor Code >> Division 1. >> Chapter 5.
138.6
. (a) The administrative director, in consultation with the
Insurance Commissioner and the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating
Bureau, shall develop a cost-efficient workers' compensation
information system, which shall be administered by the division. The
administrative director shall adopt regulations specifying the data
elements to be collected by electronic data interchange.
(b) The information system shall do the following:
(1) Assist the department to manage the workers' compensation
system in an effective and efficient manner.
(2) Facilitate the evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness
of the delivery system.
(3) Assist in measuring how adequately the system indemnifies
injured workers and their dependents.
(4) Provide statistical data for research into specific aspects of
the workers' compensation program.
(c) The data collected electronically shall be compatible with the
Electronic Data Interchange System of the International Association
of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions. The administrative
director may adopt regulations authorizing the use of other
nationally recognized data transmission formats in addition to those
set forth in the Electronic Data Interchange System for the
transmission of data required pursuant to this section. The
administrative director shall accept data transmissions in any
authorized format. If the administrative director determines that any
authorized data transmission format is not in general use by claims
administrators, conflicts with the requirements of state or federal
law, or is obsolete, the administrative director may adopt
regulations eliminating that data transmission format from those
authorized pursuant to this subdivision.
(d) (1) The administrative director shall assess an administrative
penalty against a claims administrator for a violation of data
reporting requirements adopted pursuant to this section. The
administrative director shall promulgate a schedule of penalties
providing for an assessment of no more than five thousand dollars
($5,000) against a claims administrator in any single year,
calculated as follows:
(A) No more than one hundred dollars ($100) multiplied by the
number of violations in that year that resulted in a required data
report not being submitted or not being accepted.
(B) No more than fifty dollars ($50) multiplied by the number of
violations in that year that resulted in a required report being late
or accepted with an error.
(C) Multiple errors in a single report shall be counted as a
single violation.
(D) No penalty shall be assessed pursuant to Section 129.5 for any
violation of data reporting requirements for which a penalty has
been or may be assessed pursuant to this section.
(2) The schedule promulgated by the administrative director
pursuant to paragraph (1) shall establish threshold rates of
violations that shall be excluded from the calculation of the
assessment, as follows:
(A) The threshold rate for reports that are not submitted or are
submitted but not accepted shall not be less than 3 percent of the
number of reports that are required to be filed by or on behalf of
the claims administrator.
(B) The threshold rate for reports that are accepted with an error
shall not be less than 3 percent of the number of reports that are
accepted with an error.
(C) The administrative director shall set higher threshold rates
as appropriate in recognition of the fact that the data necessary for
timely and accurate reporting may not be always available to a
claims administrator or the claims administrator's agents.
(D) The administrative director may establish higher thresholds
for particular data elements that commonly are not reasonably
available.
(3) The administrative director may estimate the number of
required data reports that are not submitted by comparing a
statistically valid sample of data available to the administrative
director from other sources with the data reported pursuant to this
section.
(4) All penalties assessed pursuant to this section shall be
deposited in the Workers' Compensation Administration Revolving Fund.
(5) The administrative director shall publish an annual report
disclosing the compliance rates of claims administrators.