The Online QME Form 106 portal — a separate system from EAMS — decides panel specialty by whoever's request the DWC's server accepts first. Lexco fills the form once, works out your case's correct earliest-eligible filing date, and submits it for you at the scheduled time, unattended.
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In a represented California workers' comp case, the party that submits a valid QME panel request first gets to designate the medical specialty the panel is drawn from. Applicants want the specialty that helps their claimant; defense wants the one that doesn't. There's no negotiation once a valid request lands — it's simply first in time.
The request can't go in early, either. Under Labor Code §4062.2(b), a panel request has to wait until the mailbox-rule period runs — 8 CCR §10605 adds a service extension on top of the statutory wait depending on where the claims administrator sits, and 8 CCR §10600 governs how those days are counted. File before that day and the portal rejects the request outright.
Which means the day it becomes available is exactly the day everyone's watching for. A calendar reminder gets you close. It doesn't get you first.
Employee and claim information, both attorneys, the specialty you're designating and why, the trigger letter — whenever you have them. Schedule a request before Lexco even has the case rated.
It reads the trigger letter's mail date, applies the mailbox-rule extension for where the claims administrator sits, and computes the earliest day your request can actually be made.
At the scheduled time, nobody has to be watching a clock or refreshing a portal. You get a notification the moment the DWC's server responds.
The QME Panel Request tool ships with Practice and Firm Wide & Enterprise — not a metered add-on, not billed per filing. If you're on the free tier, it's available the moment you move up.
A free account takes about a minute. The QME Panel Request tool comes with every paid plan, at no extra charge.