Workers’ Comp Reform High on Oklahoma GOP Legislative Agenda

Reforming Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation system will be among the top legislative goals for Republican lawmakers in 2010. GOP leaders in the state Senate and House of Representatives say overhaul of the workers’ compensation system is essential to economic development.

Republicans, enjoy a majority in the Oklahoma Senate. Led by President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee (R-OKC) and Majority Floor Leader Todd Lamb (R-Edmond), they aim to build upon the successes of the 2009 session when they passed comprehensive lawsuit reforms.

Senate and House leaders unveiled their legislative plans for workers’ comp reform during the week of Jan. 11. Introducing the Senate’s legislative package at a Jan. 12 press conference, Sen. Lamb said the bills will be all about “jobs, jobs, jobs.” He said there “are a great many positive initiatives we can pursue without spending new money that will benefit Oklahoma families, and job creation, and inject new energy into our economy.”

Sen. Harry Coates, who will co-sponsor workers’ comp legislation with Coffee, laid out the Republican Senators’ goals for comp reform. Among them:

• Better define major cause. He favors adopting the Arkansas measure which “defines major cause as 50.1 percent of an injury and it must be related to the work activity.”
• Adopt the AMA (American Medical Association) treatment guide, which is also utilized by Arkansas.
• Create a medical director position to oversee medical maintenance for severely injured employees.
• Consequences for lack of compliance with guidelines for the provider and injured worker.
• Utilize vocational rehabilitation experts to help injured workers to return to work.
• Do a better job of pursuing fraud. “Right now our understanding is that maybe 10 percent of the claims may be fraudulent,” Coates said.
• Require instate adjusting of claims and require insurance companies to have an office in Oklahoma to speed the process.

Senate Republicans may also pursue ballot initiatives that would establish term limits for judges, binding arbitration and “maybe even a reduction in the number of work comp judges,” Coates said.

The ‘Elephant in the Room’
Senate Democrats say that with their legislative package Republicans are “ignoring the huge elephant in the room,” namely the state’s budget crisis.

Oklahoma’s economy declined in the second and third quarters of 2009 faster than that of most other states. And it is not expected to rebound anytime soon, according to Chad Wilkerson, branch executive for the Oklahoma City branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the Associated Press reported.

Senate Democratic leader Charlie Laster says Republican leaders “refused to talk about what they are going to do to get us out of this billion dollar budget hole,” when they unveiled their legislative agenda.

“They spent their morning talking about all the proposals they will push that curry favor with Corporate America through giveaways to giant corporations and less regulation,” Laster said in an announcement on the Legislature’s Web site. “Need I remind Senate Republicans that a loosely regulated corporate America is what created the financial nightmare that resulted in a taxpayer bailout of companies who spent that money on million dollar bonuses for their CEOs?”

A Variety of House Bills
Unveiling legislative intentions in the House, Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa, said bills will address various aspects of the system. Rep. Dan Sullivan, who has sought changes in the past and chaired an interim study on the issue last year, will again author legislation to shore up the system, eliminate fraud, reduce costs and protect workers.

“Our current system does not provide the benefits that injured workers need. … I favor looking at these changes as a two-track process,” said Sullivan, R-Tulsa, in an announcement. “The first is to make smaller changes that will produce immediate results in efficiency and savings to the system. The second track will look at the structural changes that need to be made which will change the scope of the workers’ compensation system.”

Reforms being sought will include defining the term “surgery” for purposes of compensation; strengthening the value-added attorney fee provision; and capping the time for temporary total disability. Reducing the number of workers’ comp judges may also be considered. Another possible option is a move to an administrative workers’ compensation system, which would limit attorney involvement, among other things. Attorney participation is 50 percent higher in the state’s workers’ comp system than the national average, said Rep. Mark McCullough, R-Sapulpa.

Bill filing for the session ceased Jan. 14.