What California Law Requires in a CNA Workers' Comp Claim

Why Would CNA Be the Name on My Workers' Comp Paperwork?

CNA is the insurance company your employer paid for workers' compensation coverage, and it is CNA's own staff, not a government office, that reviews and pays the claim.

Yazdchi Law P.C. operates entirely separately from CNA, with no business arrangement between them. Below you will find what kind of company CNA is, the ways to get in touch about an open claim, and the California rules that hold steady regardless of whose name ends up on the paperwork.

CNA's workers' compensation coverage, according to its own site checked November 9, 2026, pays medical expenses and lost wages for employees hurt on the job, and CNA sells that coverage to employers.

California regulations give a specific label, claims administrator, to the company actually handling your claim on a daily basis (Title 8, section 9811(a)). That role can sit with a self-administered insurer, the same company that sold the policy, or with a separate company hired for the job. CNA's own claims pages, also checked November 9, 2026, describe CNA's own claims professionals handling files directly rather than naming an outside processor, which fits the first kind: an insurer running its own policies.

CNA is only one of many companies California employers use for this coverage. Others buy it from a different insurer, from the State Compensation Insurance Fund, or self-insure with an outside administrator. Either way, the rules below stay the same.

What's the Right Way to Contact CNA About an Open Claim?

CNA's claims center publishes one phone line for reporting or asking about a claim, but the number already printed on your own paperwork will usually reach the right person faster.

You and your employer act before CNA does. Once your employer learns you were hurt badly enough to miss work or need care beyond simple first aid, California gives it a single working day to issue the DWC-1 claim form (Labor Code section 5401). Returning that paperwork is the step that actually puts CNA on notice of your claim.

CNA's claims center page, checked November 9, 2026, lists one number for reporting or checking on a claim, (877) 574-0540, staffed Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time and not split out by claim type. Its online tool asks for a few details to start a report, something your employer will typically have already done by the time CNA opens your file.

The surest number for your claim is the one already on your own paperwork, since a specific adjuster is usually assigned by the time you need to call. When that number is not at hand, your employer's HR staff should be able to say which CNA office or adjuster has your file.

How Does CNA's California Medical Network Affect My Treatment?

CNA runs a California medical provider network with Coventry Health Care, and that network, not CNA directly, usually decides which doctors you can see for your injury.

California law lets an insurer or employer set up an approved list of doctors for job injuries, called a medical provider network (Labor Code section 4616). CNA's own site, also checked November 9, 2026, names a California Medical Provider Network delivered jointly with Coventry Health Care, built from Coventry's roster of doctors and facilities. If your employer's policy uses this network, your treating doctor will normally come from that roster.

CNA's network page names a toll-free line for injured employees who need help finding or using a network doctor: 888-202-4964, answered Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pacific time, in English and Spanish.

Not every CNA policy carries this network. Without one attached to your policy, you earn the right to choose your own doctor on the 31st day after you first reported the injury (Labor Code section 4600(c)). A second path exists only if you set it up ahead of time. Section 4600(d) lets you keep your own physician from day one if you told your employer, in writing, before you were hurt, that this doctor treats you regularly and agreed to be predesignated. CNA's network page names a form for exactly that. Our guide on choosing between the network and predesignating your own doctor covers both paths in more depth.

What Clock Is CNA On Once My Claim Form Is Filed?

Once your claim form is in, CNA has 90 days to accept or deny it, a two-week window to get your first disability payment moving, and an immediate duty to pay for care while it decides.

Medical care does not wait on CNA's paperwork. The moment your claim form is filed, up to $10,000 of treatment must be authorized within one working day. That authorization holds until CNA makes a formal call on the claim (Labor Code section 5402). That formal call gets a longer leash of 90 days. Let CNA run out that window with no written denial. California then treats the injury as covered; only something discovered afterward can unwind that.

Missing work starts its own countdown: the first temporary disability check has to go out by the 14th day after your employer learns of both the injury and the lost work time (Labor Code section 4650). Arrive late, outside a short grace period right after filing, and the law tacks on 10 percent automatically, no form required.

State regulations also shape how CNA handles the file: a fair, timely investigation once it knows about your injury, checking for reasons to pay the claim as hard as reasons to deny it (Title 8, section 10109), plus a written notice about that first disability payment, due by the same 14th day (Title 8, section 9812).

Step	Deadline	Law
Report injury to your employer	Within 30 days	Labor Code 5400
File your workers' comp claim	Within 1 year	Labor Code 5405
Insurer must accept or deny	Within 90 days	Labor Code 5402
First disability check	Within 14 days	Labor Code 4650
Appeal a denied treatment	Within 30 days	Labor Code 4610.5

If My CNA Claim Runs Into Trouble, What Are My Options?

Treatment that gets changed or turned down can still be reviewed by an outside doctor, most other fights land in front of a workers' comp judge, and California adds a charge on top of a payment that comes in late.

When your doctor asks for specific treatment, CNA, or its medical network, runs it through utilization review. That is a medical-necessity check that can approve, change, or deny the request (Labor Code section 4610). That first answer is not final. A change or denial can move to independent medical review, or IMR: a doctor with no tie to CNA reviews your records fresh (Labor Code section 4610.5), usually within 30 days. Our page on requesting an IMR after a denial covers the paperwork.

Step	What happens	Your deadline
Treatment request	Your doctor asks the insurer to approve care	None
Utilization Review	A reviewer approves, modifies, or denies it	Days
Denied	You request Independent Medical Review	30 days to appeal
IMR decision	A neutral doctor decides on the records	Final and binding

A separate track exists for bigger fights. If the argument is about whether you are covered in the first place, or about your permanent disability number, a workers' compensation judge settles it, not CNA, starting with an Application for Adjudication of Claim filed at the WCAB. Separately, California punishes an unreasonable delay or refusal with money on top: as much as 25 percent of the payment, up to a $10,000 limit (Labor Code section 5814). Each type of penalty is explained on our page on workers' comp penalties.

For a question about a claim insured by CNA or anyone else, try the free Information and Assistance Unit run by the Division of Workers' Compensation, reachable at 1-800-736-7401. If CNA turns your claim down entirely, the steps after a denial work the same way no matter which company issued it.

Does a CNA Claim Ever Need a Lawyer?

Most CNA claims move from report to resolution with no real dispute, and it usually takes one clear snag to change that.

Plenty of claims move through CNA with no real fight. It is usually one thing going wrong, treatment getting refused, a check that quits arriving, or a disability rating that seems off, that finally makes calling a lawyer worth it. Yazdchi Law P.C. weighs the specifics before deciding whether to get involved, and does not accept every inquiry.

No one simply names a price for workers' comp legal help in California. A workers' compensation judge has to clear the fee, typically 15% to 18% of what the claim brings in, before any money changes hands (Labor Code section 4906). Our separate page lays out what a workers' comp attorney typically costs in California.

Whether CNA or a name you have never heard of is on your claim, Yazdchi Law P.C. weighs each matter on its own facts and does not accept every one it reviews. Nothing above is advice about your particular matter.

Call (661) 273-1780 or send a message through the contact form. Either way, mention how the injury happened, that CNA holds the policy, and the point your claim has reached so far.

A Little More Reading on Your Claim

These links pick up the rest of the claim timeline, the effect of a denial, and typical legal fees.

• See the stages a California workers' comp claim moves through
• Read what changes once an insurer denies a claim
• Compare this to a claim State Fund is handling
• See how California limits what a workers' comp attorney can charge