N.H. Gov. Creates Workers’ Comp Commission

New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan on Sept. 4 issued an executive order creating a new commission to recommend ways to reduce the state’s workers’ compensation medical costs.

The executive order follows Hassan’s earlier announcement in May that she was planning to appoint a task force to examine the state’s workers’ comp system.

“Employers and workers have done their part to increase workplace safety, but New Hampshire has become one of the most expensive states in the nation for workers’ compensation, a burden on businesses across the state,” Hassan said on Sept. 4.

The new commission – called the Commission to Recommend Reforms to Reduce Workers’ Compensation Medical Costs – brings together more than a dozen business leaders and experts from insurance, health care and labor to allow stakeholders to identify ways to reduce workers’ comp medical costs and ensure that injured workers have access to high-quality care, Hassan said. The commission’s report is due to the governor on Dec. 1, 2014.

According to the Oregon Workers Compensation Rate Ranking Study, New Hampshire rose from the 14th-most expensive state for workers’ comp coverage in the country in 2008 to the ninth-most expensive in 2012.

In addition, data from the National Council on Compensation Insurance shows that workers’ comp surgical procedures in New Hampshire are 83 percent more expensive than those in the region and more than twice as expensive as they are nationally.

Roger Sevigny, New Hampshire’s insurance commissioner, will serve as the commission chairman. Sevigny will be joined on the commission by Labor Commissioner Jim Craig or a designee from his department. Other panel members are as follows: Brian Allen, government affairs VP at HELIOS; Donald Baldini, state affairs officer at Liberty Mutual; Pamela Bronson of Access Sports Medicine & Orthopedics; Paul Chant of Cooper Cargill Chant; Tammy Denver of N.H. Public Risk Mgmt. Ex.; Edward Dudley of Catholic Medical Ctr,; Mark Erdody of Cove Risk Services; Marc Lacroix of N.H. Physical Therapy Assoc.; David Lang of Professional Firefighters of N.H.; Mark Mackenzie of N.H. AFL-CIO; Peter McNamara of N.H. Auto Dealers Assoc.; Gregory Soghikian of N.H. Orthopaedic Ctr.; and Ben Wilcox of Cranmore Mtn. Resort.