What Is 8 CCR §37: QME Report Factual Correction?

An unrepresented employee or the claims administrator may request the factual correction of a comprehensive medical-legal report within 30 days of the receipt of a comprehensive medical-legal report from a panel Qualified Medical Evaluator that is required to be filed with the DEU pursuant to Labor Code section 4061(e).

What is 8 CCR §37?

Section 37 gives you a fast way to fix a plain factual mistake in your QME report. It applies before that report turns into a permanent disability rating.

A panel Qualified Medical Evaluator, or QME, writes a report after your exam. That report then goes to the Disability Evaluation Unit, often shortened to DEU. The DEU is the state office that turns a doctor's findings into a disability rating. This rule sits between those two steps. It lets either side flag a plain factual error. It is not a tool for a medical disagreement.

This rule applies to you if you do not have a workers' compensation attorney. Labor Code section 4061 is the law behind it. That statute sends your QME report straight to the DEU for rating once you lack a lawyer. If you have an attorney, the same kind of error is usually raised through a supplemental report request instead. See our guide to QME supplemental report deadlines for that path.

How do you actually request a factual correction?

File the correction form within 30 days of getting the report. Serve it on the QME, the other party, and the Disability Evaluation Unit office that holds the report.

Subdivision (f) names the form for this request. It must go out within 30 days of your getting the report. Subdivision (b) sets who gets a copy. That list is the panel QME who examined you, the party who did not file the request, and the DEU office that holds the original report. Miss one of those three, and your request can stall before the evaluator even looks at it.

Spell out exactly what is wrong. A factual correction fixes a plain error. Think the wrong job title, the wrong date of injury, or a record the evaluator never actually saw. It does not reopen the doctor's medical opinion. If your real issue is the opinion itself, not a fact behind it, a different set of tools applies.

What happens after you file the request?

The QME has 10 days to answer if you alone asked. That grows to 15 days if the claims administrator asked, or both sides did. You get a say if the request was not yours.

Subdivision (c) sets the evaluator's clock. File the request alone, and the panel QME has 10 days after service to decide if a correction is needed. The claims administrator files it, or both sides do, and that window grows to 15 days. Subdivision (b) adds one more protection. Say the claims administrator serves the request instead of you. You then get 5 days after service to answer its proposed corrections, before the QME rules on them.

At the end of that review, the rule requires the QME to file a supplemental report with the DEU. That report says whether a correction is actually needed. Where one is needed, it must also say whether the fix changes the opinions already in the original report. This rule keeps the process narrow too. Nobody may file anything with the QME beyond the correction form itself. The evaluator may not weigh records that were never properly filed in the first place.

How is this different from a supplemental report or a new QME?

A factual correction fixes a fact. A supplemental report answers a new medical question. A replacement QME fixes a problem with the evaluator or the panel itself.

Title 8, section 38 gives either side 60 days to send the same QME a new medical question, called a supplemental report, with its own extension rules. That same rule carves out one exception. It excludes a factual correction request from its 60 day clock, since section 37 already runs on its own, faster timeline. This site's supplemental report guide lines up both deadlines side by side.

A factual correction is also not a request for a new evaluator. Swapping out the QME or the panel itself takes one of the specific grounds in Title 8, section 31.5, such as a scheduling delay or a conflict of interest. Our guide to replacing a QME panel covers those grounds in full. And a factual correction is not a conduct complaint either. A QME who was rude, biased, or billed you directly is a different problem for the Medical Unit's oversight office. See how to file that kind of complaint instead.

Can a factual correction change your rating?

Yes, if the error actually shaped the doctor's findings. The rating process also waits until your correction request is finished.

Labor Code 4061(d) backs up this rule. You and the employer may each ask for one supplemental report fixing a factual error. An employer-filed request must also tell you that Information and Assistance officers can help you respond. That same law pauses the next step too. The administrative director will not calculate your permanent disability rating while your correction request is still pending.

This is why the correction report asks two separate things. First, was the fact actually wrong. Second, does fixing it change what the evaluator already concluded about your impairment or your future care. A correction that changes the opinion can change the number the DEU later uses to rate your claim.

What should you save or ask about a factual correction?

Keep the date you got the report. Write down the exact fact that is wrong. Send your request to all three required recipients.

Note the date the report arrived. Your 30 days start there. Name the exact sentence or fact you are challenging. Say what the real record shows instead. Keep proof you served the QME, the other party, and the DEU office, all at the same time. Did the claims administrator send the request? Mark your 5 day window to respond on your calendar.

Getting help with a QME factual correction in the Antelope Valley and beyond

A missed recipient or a late filing can cost you the chance to fix an error before it becomes your rating. Yazdchi Law P.C. reviews QME reports and correction deadlines for injured workers across the Antelope Valley, the San Fernando Valley, and the greater Los Angeles area, from its Palmdale office.

Call (661) 273-1780 or use the contact form for a free consultation about a QME report you believe gets a fact wrong. The firm reviews each matter individually.