The Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC) will conduct two free "train the trainer" sessions for external users on how to file forms and documents in the Electronic Adjudication Management System (EAMS).

The first session will be held Aug. 14 in Los Angeles. The second will be held Aug. 15 in Oakland. The sessions are designed for organizational trainers and will focus on filing forms and documents in EAMS.

Training Agenda

The sessions will not provide details about working in the electronic environment. They are not intended as general education programs for end-users. They are specifically intended for trainers at organizations such as claims administrators, lawyers, lien claim representatives and others who regularly file forms and documents at district offices. The trainers who attend a session will, in turn, be expected to provide this training to the rest of their organizations’ staff who will need to understand how to keep their files moving through the workers’ compensation courts as EAMS is implemented.

Space for the sessions is limited, therefore each organization will be allowed to send two representatives maximum per representative location. For example, a claims administrator with five adjusting locations may send up to 10 staff maximum to the training. DWC is taking reservations for the sessions, on a first come, first served basis. The sessions will be held:

Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (break for lunch from noon-1 p.m.)
Ronald Reagan State Office Building – auditorium

Friday, Aug. 15, 2008
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (break for lunch from noon-1 p.m.)
Elihu Harris State Building – auditorium
1515 Clay Street
Oakland, CA

How to Sign Up:

Those organizations wishing to send representatives to one of the training sessions should send an e-mail to eams@dir.ca.gov and put “RSVP EAMS train the trainer session” and the date they will attend in the subject line. The body of the email should contain the name, organization, location and email address of each person requesting a seat at the session. Once the space is filled, reservations will be closed for these sessions.

Two Methods for Filing DWC documents

As of “go live” on August 25, 2008, all workers’ compensations forms and documents will be filed using the new Electronic Adjudication Management System (EAMS). Initially, everyone will use the paper forms, or Optical Character Recognition (OCR) forms. These forms will be available for everyone on the Department of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) website at www.dwc.ca.gov/eams.

Shortly after August 25, 2008, e-forms (electronic forms) will become available to users who've been selected and who have agreed to file all their forms and documents using this method. E-forms can only be accessed, completed and filed by logging onto EAMS.

So, after "go live" there will be two groups of people filing workers' comp documents. There will be an eform (electronic) filing group and there will be an OCR form (paper) filing group. 

First, external users must decide which filing method works best for their business practice: OCR forms or eforms.

Second, external users must determine what changes need to be made in their office to gear up for filing their documents in EAMS.

Educational Materials and Additional DWC Seminars: 

To help external users understand, make and implement this decision about filing, the DWC has convened a group of claims administrators, attorneys and lien claimants to craft advisory and educational materials targeted to external users. The materials can be found at the DWC website: www.dwc.ca.gov/eams.

The division will conduct additional educational seminars in September following EAMS go-live, and will continue to provide advisory and training materials for external users as EAMS implementation progresses and users are phased into the electronic filing environment.

The DWC recently posted a new page on the EAMS Web site called "Getting ready for EAMS.” The purpose of the page is to provide “one stop shopping” for external users who need information on working in EAMS.

The page currently contains a forms submission demo, which shows how OCR and e-forms are processed in EAMS, a decision-point demonstration, which helps external users figure out which filing method (e-forms or OCR forms) will work best for them, a filing method timeline, and a recent court administrator memo on preparing files for submission in EAMS.

In the next few days DWC will also post an OCR form "how to" guide and sample files—which demonstrate how to set paper files up for submission using new cover sheets and document separator sheets—along with new FAQs.

For more EAMS information, go to www.dwc.ca.gov/eams.

This blog has been approved by the California Division of Workers' Compensation.