Connecticut looks at changing workers comp laws

• The Connecticut General Assembly is considering significant changes to the workers’ compensation system, including a bill that will increase the cost of additional permanent partial disability payments.
• The Labor and Public Employees Committee has approved two workers’ compensation bills that will negatively impact employers.
• The committee also approved HB 6550, which requires an administrative law judge to sign off on Form 36 when prescription drug benefits are cut.
• There are concerns the bill will create more unnecessary hearings, slowing down a well-functioning workers’ compensation system.
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Potential increase in workers’ compensation benefits

• Tennessee lawmakers want to give someone whose spouse dies on the job more funds.
• Under the state’s workers’ compensation laws, if a husband or wife dies while at work, the spouse can get up to half of their average weekly pay.
• Rep. Ron Gant wants to increase that amount to two-thirds. So if a person made $1,000 a week, instead of a maximum of $500, they could be eligible for up to $667.
• The measure passed through the House Commerce Committee.
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Terminating payment for prescription med in workers comp claims

• Injured workers are often prescribed unnecessary prescription drugs which can lead to dangerous health conditions and increased complexity of workers’ compensation claims.
• Physicians continue to prescribe and dispense opioids which are the most expensive therapy class in workers’ compensation.
• Studies show that injured workers with longer-term opioid prescriptions result in three times longer disability than injured workers with similar injuries who did not receive opioid prescriptions.
• In workers’ compensation, the medical benefits portion of a claim may be open for a number of years or even a lifetime for an injured worker.
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Family of crash victim focused on Workers’ Compensation Act

• The family of the 2016 crash is no longer pursuing its legal options and is now focused on the Workers’ Compensation Act.
• The Alaska Supreme Court dismissed the Parks family’s appeal to a superior court judge.
• That decision dropped the Petersburg Borough from a wrongful death lawsuit over a 2016 van accident that killed 18-year-old Molly Parks and 19-year-old Marie Giesbrecht.
• The Supreme Court of Alaska dismissed the case, ruling the court ruled that the Borough followed Alaska law regarding the Workers’ Compensation Act.
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