Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

My husband has been working for a company where the job involves moving lots of furniture around. Two weeks ago, he was reorganizing their warehouse and had climbed a ladder to move some things around on the top of an 8-ft. shelf. The ladder the company owns was apparently broken (one of the grips on the bottom was cracked off) so the ladder slipped while my husband had one foot on the top shelf and the other on the ladder. He fell the 8 ft, landed on concrete, and was in a lot of pain in his right hand, wrist, ribs, thigh, and knee. His employer said that she would pay for his medical expenses, just asked that we please not sue her. We had no intention of sueing her, but we did decide to go in to get x-rays. We have insurance through my employer with an HMO, so they of course asked if the injury occurred at work. We were not going to lie, so we told them it did, and then they gave us paperwork to fill out. My husband's employer then called him, frustrated that he had filed this paperwork ("I thought we talked about this..."). Apparently her frustration stemmed from the fact that her workers comp premiums will go up if claims are filed against her. My husband called our HMO and spoke with someone who apparently made it sound as though he could close the claim out if he wanted to. My question is whether this is legal or not. The reality is that I think my husband will be fine, although his ribs are still in a lot of pain. I doubt that this is going to be a case that has lingering side effects. But is it legitimate for an employer to ask an employee not to file a workers comp claim?

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