Washington State Axes Decade-Long IT Project

WaTech, Washignton state’s information technology oversight office has suspended “all project activities and expenditures” for the $292 million upgrade on the state’s workers’ compensation IT system due to a “continued lack of progress and ability to execute” by the state Department of Labor & Industries, according to a WaTech memo on the state IT dashboard.
Since 2015, the state’s Department of Labor & Industries has worked to modernize the aging technology used to manage medical claims by workers injured on the job.
Ten years later, the upgrade is stuck in the planning stages, and was still another nine years and at least $240 million from being done, according to state reports in April.
L&I officials say the suspension won’t affect the agency’s ability to process the more than 100,000 new injury claims and $2.6 billion in payments it handles each year under the workers’ compensation program.
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Analysis by NCCI of the updates by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of its reimbursement rules and rates shows a modest impact on workers’ compensation medical costs.
Physician costs account for about 40% of countrywide WC medical expenditures. Physician fee schedules in WC are often based on factors published in the annual CMS Physician Fee Schedule.
The physician conversion factor was updated to 32.3465, down 2.8% from the 2024 conversion factor of 33.2875.
Facility base rates saw moderate increases that were in line with the increases seen in prior years.
The share of costs represented by Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS) varies by state, ranging between 4% and 14% of WC medical costs.
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The Department of Labor will no longer accept paper checks as a form of payment, nor will it issue paper checks as payments, according to a notice published in the Federal Register.
This change will be implemented beginning Sept. 30, 2025.
The DOL says that it is taking this action in accordance with Executive Order 14247, which President Trump issued on March 25, 2025. Under the EO, all federal agencies must transition to electronic funds transfer and actively enroll recipients in digital payment methods.
The agency pays workers’ compensation benefits through its Office of Workers’ Compensation Program, including federal employees, coal mine workers, and workers covered by the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, as well as those in specific industries such as the energy sector, whose illnesses are related to their work.
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The Hartford has named former EverPeak Insurance executive Vladimir Stojanovic to the newly created role of head of enterprise strategy, effective Sept. 3.
He will lead the newly formed Enterprise Strategy Office, overseeing trend analysis and competitive intelligence to identify emerging opportunities.
Stojanovic was most recently chief operating officer for EverPeak Insurance, a unit of Pinnacol Assurance, from August 2023 until June 2025, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He previously served EverPeak as a consultant with Oliver Wyman’s Property and Casualty Insurance group.
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