What the panel ordered
Petition for Reconsideration granted; Findings and Order rescinded; monetary sanctions and attorney fees ordered against defendant SCIF; amount of sanctions and fees deferred to trial level WCJ
Petition for Reconsideration granted, Findings and Order rescinded and substituted
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 SCIF delayed payment of a valid invoice for 15 months without reasonable excuse, constituting bad faith and tactics solely intended to cause unnecessary delay, warranting sanctions and attorney fees.
From the decision · page 10In its Answer to the Petition for Reconsideration, defendant SCIF asserts that its initial rejection of the interpreter's invoice was based on a good faith misunderstanding of the network billing rules where the adjuster mistakenly applied the medical provider network rule under section 4616 to an interpreter cost under section 5811. We agree with cost petitioner that even if the initial error by the adjuster was in good faith, the subsequent delay was simply unreasonable, and sanctions and attorney fees should be issued against defendant for its conduct and failure to promptly investigate, pay or dispute cost petitioner's invoice.