The California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation (CHSWC) released its 2025 Annual Report, providing an overview of the state's workplace health and safety and workers’ comp systems, recent legislative and regulatory developments, system trends, and recommendations for future improvements.
The report gives insight into where California policymakers may focus future workers' comp reforms, particularly efforts to improve provider participation and modernize medical management. Ongoing monitoring of the MTUS drug formulary and P&T Committee recommendations may influence future pharmacy management policies and prescribing practices in the state's workers' compensation system.
Among the report's recommendations, the CHSWC emphasized several initiatives that could affect medical management and pharmacy in California's workers' comp system.
Many of these recommendations touched on the subject of access to care. The CHSWC plans to support the DWC’s efforts to simplify administrative processes, including adopting electronic treatment authorization forms to encourage more physicians to participate in the workers' comp system. Furthermore, the CHSWC plans to evaluate medical fee schedules and other incentives to retain existing providers and recruit additional quality medical professionals
The CHSWC also plans to explore the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) as tools to assist—not replace—clinical decision-making and healthcare management.
In regard to pharmacy-focused recommendations, the CHSWC will monitor the state formulary's impact on prescription utilization, pharmacy costs, Independent Medical Review (IMR) activity, and injured workers' access to medically appropriate care. Additionally, the CHSWC will monitor the Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) Committee's recommendations for updates to the Medical Treatment Utilization Schedule (MTUS) formulary, including evaluations of drug safety, efficacy, effectiveness, packaging, and cost within therapeutic classes.
