Allied Signal Aerospace v. Workers' Comp. Appeals Bd.

*1079 Petitioners, Allied Signal Aerospace (Allied or employer) and Constitution State Service Company (collectively petitioners), sought issuance of a writ of review from this court following a decision by the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (appeals board) concerning Maxine Wiggs (Wiggs or employee) and her request for heavy housework assistance. The writ of review was issued on December 3, 2018. The interested parties have submitted their briefs and the matter was placed on the court's May 2019 calendar.

*1080 An employer's decision to deny or modify a physician's request for specific medical services for an injured employee is subject to review under the "utilization review" process. Broadly put, utilization review is handled by medical experts. Save for two limited exceptions, neither a workers' compensation judge (WCJ) nor the appeals board has jurisdiction over the utilization review process. In this case, a majority of the appeals board concluded one of the two exceptions applied in that the parties had stipulated that the issue of a home assessment for housekeeping services would be decided by a specific registered nurse. However, the evidence does not support this…