I'm not sure this will help many, but I remember looking around this forum for related topics and couldn't find any, so I'll put this here on the off chance someone ends up in the same boat.
*I am not an lawyer, I have no legal education whatsoever, this is all purely based on my experience in WA state*
First and foremost, it's never too late to send a bill to L&I. If a claim was ever opened and any part of it was accepted by L&I, then it doesn't matter if it's 2 years later and the bill is sitting with a CA or whatever, the bill can be sent to L&I by the OC, it *should* be sent to L&I if it was for the injury that the claim was opened for.
If the OC tries to give you a hard time, understand that it's because they are afraid they will not get paid. It is the OCs responsibility to bill L&I in a timely manner and if they do not, L&I can deny payment, and you as the patient are not responsible for their untimeliness. So of course they might try to get out of sending the bill to L&I and instead get you to pay... don't let them do that.
If you are being sued over a bill that should have been paid by L&I, this is your defense, DO ANSWER, don't ignore it. Immediately contact the OC and inform them that the bill is related to an L&I claim and that it needs to be sent to them, give them all info you have on the claim to make this easier, this should stop any collection attempts by a CA. Once the bill gets to L&I, it's just a matter of waiting for them to finish the review and decide.
Last is just perseverance, these processes take time, but just keep with it.
