Blog — Contra Costa County Employees

1. What are your holiday hours?

Our office will be closed December 16 from 10:30am to the until the end of the day for a holiday function.

We will also be closed on December 24, 27, 30,  31

2. I am supposed to receive a check in the mail and it has not come.

Keep in mind that December is the busiest month for mail so most times your check has been cut and is at the post office waiting to go out along with thousands of other packages and cards for the holiday season.  Please allow at least 3 to 4 days before you check is supposed to arrive before calling our office.

3. My assistant is not available to speak me and I have an urgent matter, what do I do?

Because it is the holiday season many of our employees are out during these next couple weeks.  If it is an urgent matter anyone in our office will be happy to assist you.  Please be patient with us when we are not familiar with your file.

4. Are there any other offices closed in the next couple of weeks?

Many doctor offices are closed from the 24th through the first week in January so if  you need prescriptions or off work slips make sure to get them ahead of time.

If you are a member of Anthem Blue Cross the only perk is not medical coverage.  Anthem Blue Cross now offers special discounts on the following:

Barnes & Noble.com: you receive 5% off your online order and free shipping with orders over $25 (Easy and affordable way to shop for holiday gifts!)

Jenny Craig: Receive a 30-day trial free and 50% off the sixth month program (great idea to lose the holiday weight!)

SelfHelpWorks: receive a free 30-day free guest pass and %30 discount.  This program helps with weight loss, smoking, alcohol consumption (Get started on your New Year’s resolution!)

Drugstore.com: %5 discount on health and wellness items and free shipping with orders of $49 or more (You can avoid the hassle of going to the drugstore to not find what you need and instead get it delivered to your front door for a discount!)

To access these great offers you can go to athem.com/ca and register!

Important changes to health care coverage are now the law. As long as you pay your premiums every month, the insurance company can not drop coverage for you or your family simply because you get sick. Insurance companies will no longer be able to place lifetime limits on benefits.  Not only can they not limit lifetime care, but insurance companies are restricted in their ability to set yearly limits.

Children can not be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Parents can keep their children on their policies until the child reaches the age of 26.

Lastly, we now have the right to choose a physician.  Insurance companies will not be able to  keep up us from choosing a primary treating physician for ourselves or our children. Women can now see an Ob-Gyn without a referral from the primary treating physician.

The response from the insurance industry has been mixed. It has been reported that in response to requiring coverage for children, insurance companies will no longer offer policies to cover them.

by Lisa Ivancich

Carrie Nevans, the Acting Administrative Director, announced on Friday afternoon that  UEF and SIF will be suspending payments. Approximately 2000 letters will be mailed on Monday to clients, providers and attorneys stating no further payments will be made until additional funds available in the budget. No word as to when the budget problem would be fixed.

Child support obligations continue whether you are working or not. It is really, really important to go back to Court for a modification if you lose your job or become disabled. The calculation for support is based upon your current earnings. If you are making less money, you will probably owe less in support.  The Court will recognize the date you file the paperwork as the date set for the modification for your support. Failure to timely go back to court, when your income changes, will result in owing more money that you have the ability to pay.

The District Attorney is entitled to file a lien for unpaid child support, including any interest and penalties due, against your workers’ compensation claim. The District Attorney for each County in which you have a support obligation, will file a lien. It does not matter where the divorce was filed. Often the divorce occurred in one County and the child support obligation occurred in another.  Child support is County specific. So contacting the District Attorney in the County in which you currently live, about a child support obligation in Los Angeles, is not helpful.

The amount to be repaid out of the workers’ compensation claim goes back to the date of injury. You may owe more support prior to the date of injury, but you are only required to pay off the amount outstanding since the date of injury.

The law requires the child support lien to be paid out of your workers’ compensation claim. It is your responsibility to know how much you owe. Having the exact payoff amount before your case settles, make the settlement process easier and faster.

By Lisa Ivancich

Keep in mind that if a neighbor, friend, or acquaintance asks you to help out around his or her home and is willing to pay you for it, you a most likely not entitled to workers’ compensation benefits if you become injured.

According to Labor Code Section 3352 you are exempt from Workers’ Compensation Benefits if you are employed for fewer than 52 hours or earn less than $100 within 90 days of the calendar year while working in a home-related or personal services type job.

So the next time Mrs. Smith asks you to hang her Christmas Tree Lights for $50 and you fall off the ladder, look to your private insurance for coverage.

Effective August 9, 2010 Pegnim & Ivancich will be moving to a new location  5 miles down the road at:
3440 Hillcrest Ave, Suite 175
Antioch, Ca 94531

We can still be reached at the same phone number and facsimile.

Please note that our office will be closed next Monday, July 5th. Our next after hour drop in will be Monday, July 19th.

How Large A Portion?

Ouch! You have just suffered an injury while at work, and therefore may file a workers’ compensation claim.  You are in your mid-40’s and the injury is to your back.  You had noticed your back hurting a bit before the injury (probably from just getting older) but it was nowhere near the pain that you are now experiencing since the work injury.  Not to mention you had that old embarrassing lower back injury that you suffered during a picnic whiffleball game a few months ago, which you have since pretty much fully recovered from.  But what should these other aches and pains have to do with your new injury?  After all, if it wasn’t for the new work injury, you would still be able to work!

That is absolutely true.  However, when it comes time to determine the amount of Permanent Disability associated with your back injury, the doctor will attempt to determine just that:  how much of the disability was caused by the work injury and not other contributing factors.  This is called apportionment in workers’ compensation.

The doctor will attempt to apportion your Permanent Disability.  Using the example above, the doctor could determine that 80% of your disability is a result of your work injury, while 10% is due to “degenerative changes” (the back pain you noticed before) and 10% to your whiffleball-related injury.  This is when you say, “But that isn’t fair!  If it wasn’t for the work injury I wouldn’t have any noticeable disability!”  You’re right, but that is just the way the law and the labor code are written at the moment, and we’re stuck with it.

Insurance companies are also beginning to try to apportion an injured worker’s inability to get back to work after the injury to other factors besides the injury itself.  Again, you will correctly shout from the rooftop that “but if it wasn’t for my work injury I would still have my job!”  However, insurance companies are increasingly making the argument that not all of someone’s inability to find a job is related to the work injury.  They put forward that the economic climate is even preventing healthy people from finding work, that the injured worker may not be looking at all available jobs, that the job the injured worker was employed in is now more and more rare for anyone who is looking for work, injured or not.  Simply put, they are looking for other things to blame your inability to find a job on than your work-related injury.

Rodman J Martin

The Health Care Reform Legislation recently passed in Washington DC will significantly impact our clients.  By October 1, 2010, Insurance Carriers will be required to offer insurance coverage for dependents up to age 26.  So, your children will now be eligible to stay on your insurance until they are 26.  No longer do your children need to stay in school to be covered. Coverage now is based upon solely on age. It is also important to note that marriage is not a factor that would exclude your children from your policy. As long as your child is under age 26, they can be covered on your health plan, whether they are married or not. The spouse of your child would not be eligible for coverage.

For our younger clients who do not have health insurance, it is important to discuss coverage options with your parents. Changes to the Workers’ Compensation Laws have made it difficult to get much needed medical care on a timely basis. Sometimes coverage through private health insurance is necessary to obtain treatment. The Health Care Reform Legislation may make a difference.

Lisa E. Ivancich