Delaware’s General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the recommendations made by the Workers’ Compensation Task Force headed by Lt. Gov. Matt Denn.
The group worked for four months to address the sharp increase in Delaware’s workers compensation premiums over the past two years that nearly erased four consecutive years of decreases that totaled more than 40%. Employers, particularly those in construction, had stated the increases would lead to layoffs and perhaps moving out of state.
“We did an incredible amount of important work in a very short time and I want to thank each member of the task force for their efforts. These changes will make a real difference in Delaware in helping people return to work more quickly and efficiently, Denn said.
The task force took the view that the 2007 statutory amendments and subsequent regulatory work done by the Health Care Advisory Panel had initially been effective in both controlling premiums and ensuring that injured workers continued to have prompt access to qualified doctors to treat their workplace injuries. The task force’s recommendations focus on revisions and improvements to the 2007 statute, not a wholesale rejection of that law and replacement of it with an entirely new system.
The recommendations include:
– Place tighter controls on workers compensation medical costs. These recommendations include a two-year inflation freeze on the fee schedule for medical treatment of workers compensation recipients, a permanent reduction in the inflation rate allowed for hospital treatment of workers compensation recipients, and reductions in allowed reimbursements in a variety of medical categories.
– Ensure that insurance carriers’ requests for rate increases receive a high level of scrutiny. These recommendations include the retention of a part-time attorney to represent businesses during the workers compensation rate-setting process, and a system to ensure that insurers are diligently enforcing the state’s medical cost controls.
– Make the state’s laws encouraging injured workers to return to work more effective; and
– Improve the state’s workplace safety program to both increase its usage and ensure that is accurately determines which workplaces are using appropriate safety practices.
The General Assembly accepted the task force’s suggestion that they be kept in existence on a temporary basis, both so that it can consider some issues that it did not have time to discuss during the short time that it had to make recommendations, and so that it can monitor the impact of its recommendations and suggest stricter measures with respect to medical costs if necessary.
If the implemented recommendations do not result in manageable increases in workers compensation premiums, the task force believes that more significant changes should be considered both with respect to the levels and methods of paying medical claims, and the system for calculating injured workers permanency and lost wage claims.
A copy of the final report and all information from the meetings can be found at http://ltgov.delaware.gov/
