If you have Spanish-speaking employees, you must provide the notice in both English and Spanish. Your workers compensation carrier is required to make available this required notice to their policy holders. This required posting notifies your employees of the following:

• The types of events and injuries that are covered by workers compensation;
• The time limitations for reporting an injury;
• To whom injuries should be reported;
• How to obtain medical treatment;
• The right to select and change a treating physician;
• The injured employee may consult a licensed attorney to advise them of their rights under workers’ compensations laws. In most instances, attorney’s fees will be paid from an injured employee’s recovery;
• The entitlement to temporary disability, permanent disability, death benefits and the supplemental job displacement voucher;
• The prohibition against discrimination for filing a workers’ compensation claim; and
• The contact information and website address to obtain further information, including that of the local Information and Assistance Office.

• CalChamber’s all-in-one 2025 California and Federal Labor Law Poster, available in English or Spanish, from the CalChamber store. It contains the legally required notice approved by the Division of Workers’ Compensation.

If an employer uses Medical Provider Networks(MPN), the complete written MPN employee notification must be posted in both English and Spanish in a conspicuous location frequented by employees during the hours of the workday and next to the workers’ compensation posting.

You must give a complete written MPN employee notification about coverage under the MPN to employees at the time of hire, at the time of injury, or when an employee with an existing injury begins treatment under the MPN. The insurer or the employer must notify an injured employee of his or her right to be treated by a physician of his or her choice within the MPN after the first visit with the MPN physician and the method by which the list of participating providers may be accessed by the employee.

Every MPN must post on its website the names of all participating medical providers and ancillary service providers (e.g. MRI scan facilities) along with their address and telephone number.2 This is to provide easy access to injured employees to all of the providers within a particular MPN.

The California Supreme Court has ruled that an injured employee may receive treatment within the MPN, paid for by the industrial insurance carrier. However, the injured employee may nonetheless obtain treatment outside the MPN on a private-pay basis. Reports obtained outside the MPN may not be the only evidence to support an award of benefits, and such reports are not admissible to resolve disputes over diagnosis and treatment within an MPN.3

MPN regulations include:4

• A streamlined process that allows for electronic submission of MPN applications, modifications and renewals, and allows employers to distribute MPN notices electronically to all covered employees.
• A provision that MPNs are approved for a period of four years.
• A requirement that employers include an MPN contact email address in notices.
• A requirement that the MPN maintain appropriate access standards by having at least three physicians who can treat common injuries available within three business days (20 business days for a specialist) and within 30 miles of the employee’s residence or workplace, or permit out-of-network treatment.
• A requirement that a Medical Access Assistant (or designated claims adjuster) be located in the United States and available at a toll-free number Monday to Saturday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. to provide employee assistance with access to medical care, including, but not limited to, contacting provider offices during regular business hours and scheduling medical appointments for covered employees.
• A requirement that MPN physicians affirmatively acknowledge in writing their agreement to participate in the MPN, and a streamlined process for obtaining such acknowledgments.
• A requirement for a transfer-of-care policy to a new physician within the MPN if the employee’s treating physician is terminated from the MPN.
• A requirement that all physicians and medical access assistants within the MPN be listed on the MPN website and that it be updated quarterly.
• If an employee who is required to obtain treatment within an MPN nevertheless chooses to obtain treatment outside the MPN, the employer is not liable for the treatment costs; where an employee permissibly obtains treatment outside the MPN, the non-MPN physician must immediately notify the employer at the time treatment commences.
• An oversight provision that outlines the mechanism for a formal complaint, including a new complaint form, and provides procedures by which an MPN may be subject to probation, suspension or revocation, or assessed administrative penalties.

Penalties for Failing to Post Workers’ Compensation Notice

Failure to post the required Notice to Employees-Injuries Caused By Work notice is a misdemeanor and automatically constitutes prima facie evidence of noninsurance.5 Failure to post the required notice also automatically permits the employee to be treated by their own personal physician for an injury that occurs during the period that the notice was not posted.6

However, failure to post the required MPN notice or to provide notice of the existence of the MPN shall not be a basis for an employee treating outside of an MPN, unless it is shown that the failure to provide notice “resulted in the denial of medical care.” The burden is on the employee to prove that the failure to display the required posting resulted in a denial of care. As a cautionary warning, note the en banc decision in Knight v. UPS (2006) where the WCAB concluded that simply failing to give the required MPN notice and instructions on how to use the MPN to the employee was a de facto “denial of medical care,” entitling the employee to procure medical treatment outside of the MPN and making the cost of those services the liability of the employer and its insurance carrier.7

1. Lab. Code sec. 3550

2. Lab. Code sec. 4616(a)(4),

3. Valdez v. WCAB, 57 Cal.4th 1231 (2013)

4. Lab. Code sec. 4616 and 8CCR sec. 9767.5

5. Lab. Code sec. 3550(b)

6. Lab. Code sec. 3550(e)

7. Lab. Code sec. 4616.3(b); Knight v. UPS, 71 CCC 1423 (2006); Lazcano v. Lutheran High School, Cal. Wrk. Comp. P.D. LEXIS 99 (2022)