Division of Workers' Compensation
Workers’ Compensation System Reform Needs and Goals for 2003
Medical - There is an inseparable
interrelationship between medical and indemnity issues. We need to:
- Implement processes to assure that injured workers
receive timely, quality medical treatment.
- Eliminate doctor shopping and address over-utilization
and defensive medicine practices.
- Permit doctors to make the medical decisions.
- Revise the medical reimbursement system to make it more
equitable for all providers.
Indemnity - The current system offers
opportunities for financial incentives that encourage
‘undesirable behavior’ which in turn result in worsened case
outcomes and higher overall claim costs. We need to:
- Implement an indemnity benefit system that provides
financial incentives for employees who return to work as
soon as medically feasible and disincentives for employers
who don’t take employees back.
Administration - Features of the present
system impede our system from functioning in a self-executing
manner. We need to:
- Streamline dispute resolution processes.
- Strengthen compliance statutes, enforcement processes,
and add fraud and compliance resources to increase
compliance.
- Re-define the role of Division staff in regard to
education and dispute resolution.
- Address carriers who demonstrate trends of
non-compliance with statutory provisions.
- Define what data should be collected, from whom, and how
to assure that we will obtain accurate, relevant data from
all the parties.
