American Lien Inc and Shannon Oconnor have contracted with the State of California to assist in the creation of a new billing fee schedule for doctors who are on the approved list of California Physicians and specialties. They are working hand in hand with billing coding enforcement and regulation. Shannon Oconnor and American Lien Inc. have been able to help uncover more than one hundred cases of Workers compensation billing discrepancies and physician or other healthcare specialty over billing or miscoding techniques and under reporting and untimely AME and QME Evaluation regulations.

An AME, or Agreed Medical Evaluator, is a doctor agreed upon by an injured worker's attorney and the insurance company. A QME, or Qualified Medical Examiner, is selected from a list of state-certified doctors. QME lists are generated randomly. Once an injured worker sees an AME, he or she is not entitled to see a QME. An AME may be used regardless of the year of injury. An AME physician may be a QME, but does not have to be one.

The new billing fee schedules are being devised after a new law signed by California Governor Jerry Brown brings extensive changes to the workers' compensation system in the State. The new law enhances the system designed to protect workers who are injured on the job. It is intended to reduce costs to employers, increase benefits to injured workers, and eliminate inefficiencies and waste in the system.

Governor Brown signed the bill in September 2012 and many of its provisions went into effect on January 1, 2013. Those portions of the new law instituting a new fee schedule went into effect at the start of 2014.

American Lien Inc. and Shannon Oconnor are physician's advocates, billing specialists, and work comp law specialists. They represent both the applicant and defense sides of cases. Shannon Oconnor and American Lien Inc. have joined forces with defense counsel to help establish better regulations and help to avoid frivolous claims.

Major highlights of the new workers' compensation law include increasing total permanent disability benefits by about $740 million per year; a provision that no permanent disability indemnity payment is required if the employer has offered the employee a position that pays at least 85% of the compensation paid to the employee at the time of injury or if the employee works in a position that pays 100% of the compensation paid to the employee at the time of injury as specified; and funding for a $120 million return-to-work program appropriated from the Workers' Compensation Administration Revolving Fund.

American Lien Inc. and Shannon Oconnor agreed to assist State of California Workers Compensation system with determining legitimate claims, billing laws and regulation enforcement, physician billing insurance laws and patient benefits.

Governor Brown's office has estimated that the new law will reduce the costs of workers' compensation losses by nearly one billion dollars.

About: American Lien and Shannon Oconnor are Workers Compensation law specialists.