More California workers are returning to work after beinginjured on the job, due in part to the state's reforms to theworkers' compensation system, according to the California Divisionof Workers' Compensation.

The division was required to conduct an analysis under theprovisions of the 2005 reforms that enacted a Permanent DisabilityRating Schedule.

Based on the data it collected, the division found that thepercentage of injured workers who were employed four quarters afterthe quarter in which they were injured totaled 70 percent in 2005,an increase of more than 5 percent from before the reformlegislation.

In order to conduct a full analysis of the effectiveness of theregulations, the division said it would need to conduct a wage lossstudy. However, the division noted that such a study requires threeyears of data, and therefore would not be available until late2008.

"In lieu of a full wage loss study, the division is analyzingreturn-to-work rates," the division said in the analysis."Return-to-work rates are important because the RAND Corp. [a thinktank group] concluded, among other observations aboutreturn-to-work, that injured workers who continue at the at-injuryemployer may actually receive benefits that exceed their earninglosses after tax considerations are taken into account."

The division said it considered the roughly 12-month time framefor return-to-work data because RAND characterized it as "a strongpredictor of the long-term economic outcomes of disabledworkers."

Looking at specific injuries, the division said it only hadenough data to compare six types of injuries from 2005 with thoseof prior years.

For spine injuries, the return-to-work rate increased from 60percent to 70 percent in 2005, and the rate for knee injuriesincreased from 75 percent to 86 percent. The division said therewere increases in arm and hand injury return-to-work rates, butthat the rate for shoulder injuries decreased from 73 percent to 71percent.

The division will conduct an examination of wage-loss for theperiod immediately before the reforms, from 2000 through 2003, andexpects that to be completed in March. That data will eventually beused for comparison once the wage-loss study for the years afterthe rating schedule was enacted is completed.