Bill overhauling workers’ comp could be ready next week
NASHVILLE (AP) — Legislation overhauling the state’s workers’ compensation system will be rolled out next week, Sen. Joe Haynes said Thursday.
The bill, still being worked on by lawmakers and Gov. Phil Bredesen’s administration, is likely to increase benefits for injured workers who can’t return to the job but reduce them for employees who go back to work at the same or better pay.
“We have to strike a balance,” said Haynes, a Goodlettsville Democrat who will sponsor the bill and co-chairs an ad hoc committee on workers’ compensation.
The legislation also likely will require the Department of Labor and Workforce Development to create rules limiting what doctors can charge to treat injured workers.
“This has to be done very carefully,” Haynes said. “I’m convinced that if you develop a fee schedule that’s too harsh you drive away physicians that need to be in the system and are serving a real benefit to workers’ comp patients.”
He said the legislation also will seek to “educate judges to be more consistent across the board” but won’t replace the court-based system with a commission, which would merely create another layer of bureaucracy, Haynes said.
Tennessee and Alabama are the only two states that don’t have an administrative review process for workers’ comp cases. There have been charges of “judge shopping” by attorneys for injured workers who are looking for the biggest award.
Sen. Rosalind Kurita, D-Clarksville, said she hopes the bill also addresses concerns that injured workers aren’t getting reimbursed in a timely fashion.
“We have workers who are hurt, who are in the process and they lose their house, they lose everything they’ve ever owned because it takes so long to convince the insurance companies to start paying,” she said, suggesting that insurers be financially penalized for that.
Haynes said the bill should be ready Monday.
“I may be optimistic on that. This thing is a tiger, I tell you. I thought rewriting the criminal code in 1989 was tough, gosh almighty.”
Bredesen told legislators earlier this year that he wanted to sign legislation that would lower the costs of workers’ compensation to businesses. He’s afraid it’s driving them out of the state.
The challenge is being fair to employers and employees, while being buffeted by lobbyists for businesses, doctors, labor unions and trial lawyers.
“We’ve tried to split down the middle,” Haynes said. “… This is a tough ball to bounce.”
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On the Net:
Read SB3003/HB2956 at http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/
Workers’ Comp Division: http://www.state.tn.us/labor-wfd/wcomp.html