Forget immigration reform. Maybe the next big wave to sweep the country will be reforming state workers’s compensation laws. These laws compensate workers who can’t work because of an injury, often requiring they not sue their employers. They’re intended to give workers a way to continue their income while sparing employers from being hauled into court.
But some have called for reform of these laws, and legislatures in at least two states, Montana and Kansas, have heard the call.
Highlights of the Montana law, H.B. 334:
• Terminates medical benefits for permanent partial disability claims 60 months from the date of injury, but also allows an extension of the benefits upon review by a panel of doctors.
• Requires doctors to apply the sixth edition of the American Medical Assn.’s “Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment” when rating impairments.
• Limits employer liability for injuries that occur off the company’s premises, such as while a worker is performing personal business, on a break, or participating in social or recreational activities paid for by the employer.
• Freezes medical fee schedules from July 2011 through June 2013 at rates that were in effect on Dec. 31, 2010.
• Allows insurers to designate doctors.
Kansas’s new law, HB 2134:
• Ends payment of unwarranted claims by raising the threshold required for an incident to be compensable;
• Overturns court decisions that eroded the workers compensation system;
• Clarifies that employers are entitled to a credit for pre-existing conditions; and
• Increases benefit caps for injured workers who have lost the capacity to work.