What the panel ordered
Petition for Reconsideration denied; no finding of bad faith or sanctionable conduct; no attorney fees awarded
Petition for Reconsideration filed by Dr. Konstat's attorney after WCJ found no bad faith by Defendant and denied attorney fees; remanded to WCJ for reconsideration of bad faith issue
This docket was decided more than once. Shown here is the latest released decision; we also hold April 21, 2021.
What was disputed, and how it came out
Each issue the panel decided, with the reasoning it gave. An outcome is what this panel did on this record — not a rule, and not a prediction.
Defendant did not act in bad faith or sanctionable conduct; promptly corrected billing error and paid full amount plus penalties and interest; no pattern or intent to delay or harass found; attorney fees denied as no bad faith found.
From the decision · page 3I issued a Findings and Order dated April 8, 2022, and found, once again, that Defendant did not act in bad faith, and that no sanctions were warranted, and so no attorney's fees were awarded either per former CCR Sections 10451.l(g)(l)(A)&(B) and 10561 (now 10421) and LC Section 5813. I originally found that cost petitioner should receive some attorney fees for the work done to effectuate the settlement with Defendant of Dr. Konstat's billing in mid-2019 when the petition for non-IBR Determination was filed on 3/5/2019. This is what triggered Defendant to discover the unit error of 7 vs. 74 for the first time, as the original request for secondary bill review the year before indicated the billing was erroneously down-coded from an ML104 to an ML101. That's why when the secondary bill review was requested, the bill review results of 4/24/18 indicated that Dr. Konstat's billing was duplicative and no further monies were owed, even though this second bill review showed 74 units. It was because the secondary bill review only requested an analysis under ML104, not ML101. It was not until the March 2019 non-IBR petition was served that Defendant discovered the 7 vs. 74 unit discrepancy issue.