National – The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) released its 4th quarter economics briefing earlier this week. Findings from the report included: employers added 2.7 million jobs last year, employment growth was concentrated in two private-sector industry groups: education and health care, and leisure and hospitality and cumulative payroll growth in work comp from March 2020 through 2023 was above pre-Covid levels because of growth in wages.
Alaska – SB 206 would require the division to notify injured workers who have missed 25 days of the right to participate in the program, and they would have 10 days to notify the division and the employer. The division would have 14 days to select a rehabilitation specialist, who would have 60 days to develop a stay-at-work plan and deliver it to the Department, the injured worker, the employer, and the employee’s attending physician. The cost of the benefits falls on the employer and is capped at $3,000 and there is a time limit set of 2 years.
Colorado – HB 1140 would require workers to pass a psychological fit-for-duty assessment at the time of hire and not have been previously diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder to be eligible for a “complex trauma,” diagnosis, which is defined in the bill as chronic or repeated exposure to traumatic events, including witnessing death, sexual assault, child abuse, domestic violence or a motor vehicle accident causing bodily injury, with long-term emotional or physical symptoms. HB 1139 would remove the requirement that a surviving spouse relinquish workers’ compensation death benefits upon remarriage, stating that death benefits "will be paid to a dependent surviving spouse of a deceased employee for life, regardless of remarriage, if the surviving spouse receives death benefits pursuant to current law, and the deceased employee was a state employee who worked in a job with a high-risk classification.”
Virginia – House Bill 1226, if passed, would remove the 52-week limit on benefits for police and firefighter post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) claims. HB 1418 exempts certain rules of the Workers’ Compensation Commission from formal rulemaking requirements as long as the commission opens it up for public comment before adopting the rules. HB 205 would remove from current law a provision that prohibits employers or carriers from trying to recover payments from doctors more than one year after the date payment was made for services provided after July 1, 2014. The Commission has jurisdiction over any disputes after recoveries, but the one year from the date of payment is regardless of date.
Indiana – The Indiana Senate voted 49-0 this week to pass SB 264. It now heads to the House. The bill would allow members of certain religious sects to opt out of workers’ compensation coverage for workplace injuries. The bill would allow certain religious groups that oppose accepting public or private insurance benefits because of an injury, disability, or death to file an affidavit declining coverage. The worker would have to verify that the religious sect has a method for sharing the cost of medical expenses and lost income resulting from work-related injuries. The worker would also have to acknowledge they are voluntarily waiving rights to receive work comp benefits.
Florida – HB 161 would increase the maximum reimbursement for physicians to 150% of the Medicare rate from 110% and increase maximum payments for surgical procedures to 150% of Medicare’s rate from 140%. The bill would also authorize a 50% increase in witness fees. Also moving through the legislature is SB 808 which would increase reimbursement rates for treating providers of specific types of government workers, like police officers and firefighters to up to 200% of what Medicare pays.
Kentucky – HB 363 would create a presumption that post-traumatic stress disorder is compensable for police, firefighters, emergency medical workers and members of the National Guard. It would remove the prohibition on coverage for psychological, psychiatric, or stress-related injuries without an associated physical injury.
Texas – The 2024 Insurance Carrier Performance-Based Oversight Assessment Plan and PBO schedule can be viewed here. The report reviews five performance measures of insurance carriers including, timely payment of initial temporary income benefits by the insurance carrier,
timely reporting of initial payment data to Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) via Texas Claim EDI Release 3.1.4, timely processing of initial medical bills by the insurance carrier, timely processing of requests for reconsideration of medical bills by the insurance carrier and timely reporting of medical data to DWC via Texas Medical State Reporting Release 1.0.
Texas Mutual released its workplace safety trends report earlier this week that highlighted the construction industry as the top industry for workplace injuries with more than triple the number of reported claims of any other industry.
Virginia – The Senate voted 29-11 to pass SB 241 this week. If passed, it would require employers and carriers to notify injured workers that they have the right to dispute the denial of a claim with the Workers’ Compensation Commission. The bill would also mandate that denial letters include certain language about the right to appeal and contact information for the commission.
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