A class action has been filed in California’s Southern District Federal Court, seeking to challenge not just lien activation fees, but lien filing fees as well.

In the case of Dirk Kancilia, D.C. v. [a lot of California defendants],  the plaintiff is seeking Federal intervention to prevent not only the requirement to pay a lien activation fee of $100 prior to January 1, 2014, but also the lien filing fee of $150 as required by California Code of Regulations section 10207(d).  The complaint also seeks a reinstatement of liens previously dismissed for failure to pay activation fees, and a disgorgement and repayment of activation fees paid to date.

The arguments made in the complaint are familiar to us all.  Evil insurance companies, unfairly denied bills, poor workers going without treatment, etc.  The complaint even goes so far as to describe California’s lien crisis: “Workers’ compensation insurance companies have routinely delayed resolution of medical service liens or have ignored or underpaid them.  This abuse has resulted in a huge volume of unresolved claims and has congested the workers’ compensation system.”

You see? It’s those evil insurance companies, and not the physicians that knowingly and intentionally provide services in the face of repeated objections based on MPNs, UR, IMR, etc.  It’s these same lien claimants that routinely bill well in excess of the fee schedule, again, knowingly and intentionally, without regard for the rights of defendants.

The world’s tiniest violins, both in this case and in the Angelotti Chiropractic  case, complaint to the federal judges about the horrors of California workers’ comp – how these poor medical providers have bills that need to be paid and that they are expected to shell out $150 per case and wait years and years for a recovery if any.

The simples solution, of course, is not to provide services for which you are not entitled to payment.  These guys are repeat players, and they know full well who has a valid MPN; they know full well what the fee schedule is; they know full well which body parts are accepted as industrial injuries and which are not; and they know full well how to fill out a Request for Authorization form.  They choose not to because that is the business model – provide “treatment” now and clog up the workers’ compensation system with liens after.

There’s a good chance we’ve seen the death of the lien activation fee with the Angelotti case.  Hopefully the lien filing fee will survive.