Trade Group: Workers’ Comp Reform Among Key Issues for Illinois Insurers

Workers’ compensation, commercial insurance purchasing rules and auto insurance verification are among key challenges for insurers in Illinois legislative session, a national insurance trade organization says.

American Insurance Association (AIA), which identified legislative and regulatory issues for property/casualty insurers in Illinois, believes workers’ comp reform will be particularly challenging.

In a statement, Steve Schneider, AIA’s vice president for state affairs, Midwest region, said: “Hostile forces in the Democrat led House of Representatives twice passed legislation last session that would impose government price controls on insurers’ workers’ compensation premiums (HB 1287 and SB 2901). These measures threaten the most competitive workers’ compensation market in the country, hurting Illinois businesses in the end.”

AIA proposes that an effective reform package would lower “workers’ compensation medical costs by limiting prescription drug usage and costs, enacting a Medicare based medical fee schedule and increasing disclosure requirements for lawyers and medical providers profiting from the workers’ compensation system.”

Schneider also said AIA is urging the restoration of a “former law that would allow large commercial accounts to purchase their insurance products, exempt from form filing requirements, from insurers admitted to do business in Illinois.”

A 2016 measure, SB 3072, would have accomplished the objective. It passed the Senate in 2016 but was held in the House Rules Committee. “We’ll be striving hard this year to restart this important commercial lines’ modernization legislation,” Schneider said.

AIA also “remains steadfastly committed to the implementation of automobile insurance verification legislation, as endorsed by the Illinois Secretary of State’s Uninsured Motorist Verification Committee that would establish a web based system for insurance verification based upon the model plan of the Insurance Industry Committee on Motor Vehicle Administration (IICMVA),” Schneider said.

Source: AIA