Ohio – The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) should be entitled to redeem an overpayment of benefits for a worker from the time they have reached maximum medical improvement and when the employee’s temporary total disability was terminated.
Governor DeWine signed SB 106 requiring the BWC and self-insured public employers to pay for testing to determine if air ambulance workers sustained a work injury due to exposure to blood or bodily fluids.
Virginia – March 9th concluded Virginia’s legislative session. Before the clock ran out, two bills continued to make progress:
- SB 607 passed the House. The bill aims to establish requirements for central fill pharmacy outsourcing and pharmacy technician remote database access. Specifically, the bill would require central fill pharmacies, upon request of the originating pharmacy, to complete a drug order and return the filled prescription to the originating pharmacy for delivery to the patient for non-federally controlled substances.
- SB 74 amends the Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) and was approved by the Governor. It is effective starting July 1, 2024. SB 74 would require the Director of the Department of Health Professionals to release confidential information from the PMP relevant to a specific investigation, supervision, or monitoring of a specific recipient for purposes of the administration of criminal justice to a drug court administrator or behavioral health docket administrator.
West Virginia – Right before the session ended, SB 170 passed the House and was sent to the Governor on March 12, 2024. As a reminder, if passed, this bill aims to increase identify what diseases would be covered by workers’ compensation for firefighters. According to the bill, it would establish rebuttable presumptions for cardiovascular injury, disease, or pulmonary disease for firefighters. Some of the diseases included are bladder cancer, mesothelioma, and testicular cancer.
Oklahoma – This week two bills of note passed the Senate and were sent to the House:
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- SB 1456, if passed, would create a court, the Court of Existing Claims, to manage and oversee workers’ compensation claims that deal with dates of injuries that proceed with the 2014 reforms.
- SB 1457, if passed, the bill aims to ensure first responders receive workers' compensation. Specifically, the bill states that if a doctor believes a first responder is unable to perform his/her job or an alternative work offered by the employee, the injured first responder will be entitled to receive compensation that is 70% of the first responder's average weekly wage or receive compensation that is greater than the weekly benefit provided.
Wisconsin – The Senate passed AB 1073 with a vote of 31-1 this week, which sends the bill to Governor Evers’ desk for approval. The bill would increase the maximum permanent partial disability benefit to $438 from $430 and increase the maximum PPD benefit to $446 for any injuries after January 1, 2025. The bill further allows the Department of Workforce Development to close compensation claims. This bill was one of the two bills the WCAC agreed to this year.
Colorado – HB 1139 heads to the Governor’s desk this week. It passed the Senate 29-5, and it would establish a lifelong entitlement to workers’ compensation death benefits for the surviving spouse of certain state workers. The bill was amended in the Senate to include peace officers in the Department of Revenue, state university and college police officers.
Texas – The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) announced earlier this week that it adopted changes to include multistate classifications used by NCCI and replaced its state-specific classifications. For example, the Texas classification phraseologies for Code 0016, “farm — orchard and drivers” and “pecan harvesting and drivers” will be replaced with the multistate phraseologies “farm — orchard or grove and drivers” and “turpentine farm and drivers.” Here is the order.
The Division of Workers’ Compensation is accepting public comments on a proposed rule to ensure health care providers cannot use the agency’s complaint process to circumvent the medical fee dispute resolution filing deadline. Providers are usually required to file a request to resolve a fee dispute within one year from the date of service. The division will accept public comments until 5pm on April 22nd. A public hearing will be held at 11am on April 15th. Here is more information on the proposed rules.
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