California State Compensation Insurance Fund

Kaiser Permanente and California's largest workers' compensation insurer said they plan to start a program next month to provide health care to injured workers. Assuming the program gets regulatory approval, the insurer, State Compensation Insurance Fund, and Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest health maintenance organization, will launch the program July 1 in three markets including Orange County, the organizations announced.

In what was being termed one of the largest workers' compensation fraud cases in recent state history, the state obtained a $5.5-million judgment against a Seal Beach man who allegedly ran a fraud scheme against the State Compensation Insurance Fund. U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. ruled against Vincent M. Marconi, 63, who is awaiting extradition proceedings in England on a separate criminal case involving mail fraud charges, his attorney confirmed.

In one of the biggest workers' compensation penalties assessed in California, an insurance company has been ordered to pay more than $1 million to a Los Angeles man whose rehabilitation benefits were improperly cut off for 4 1/2 years.

Citing Los Angeles as the state's insurance fraud capital, several workers' compensation insurers are quietly retreating from the area, making it harder for some employers to get affordable private insurance. That is adding to the insurance cost spiral that is raising the cost of doing business in Southern California and driving some employers out of the area.

State Agency Files RICO Suit: The State Compensation Insurance Fund said it had filed a civil racketeering suit in U.S. District Court against a group of its former customers. The suit charges that seven Southern California labor leasing companies conspired to misrepresent their business and misreport their payrolls to reduce the cost of their workers' compensation coverage from State Compensation, the independent state agency which is the largest workers' compensation carrier in California.