Rowe High on Reform

State Fund President and CEO Tom Rowe, who gave a speech in mid October at the opening of Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of California’s, inaugural InsurFEST in San Diego Calif., has a lot of confidence in a law to reform the state’s workers’ compensation system.

Here’s what Rowe said about Senate Bill 863: “If it’s well implemented and it’s aggressively defended it could be much, much better than we originally believed.”

He also stated: “I think SB 863 holds great promise.”

What he liked about the bill was that it put the two primary workers’ comp parties — labor and employers — in a room together and kept all the secondary stakeholders out of the debate. A move that in the end left out medical providers, the insurance industry and applicants’ attorneys. The insurance industry has embraced the new law, while medical providers have offered little feedback and applicants’ attorneys have continued to opposed the new law.

While State Fund has estimated the new law could generate more than $500 million in immediate savings, there are those who believe that number could be even larger — upwards of $1 billion.

The state’s Worker’s Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau has conducted an assessment of SB 863 showing it would reduce system costs by $860 million in 2013, but following an increase in permanent disability benefits in 2014 the savings would fall to $270 million annually.