As the 133rd Ohio General Assembly is seated a priority for NFIB on behalf of our 22,000 members is to get the dialogue initiated on meaningful workers’ compensation reform. Workers’ compensation is a significant cost of doing business in Ohio and is often seen as an impediment to job growth and retention. Below is our list:
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SUGGESTED REFORMS
- Permanent Total Disability (PTD) – When the first application has been adjudicated and denied, claimant must prove new and changed circumstances before a second application can be made.
- PTD compensation ends at age 75 – PTD came into being before the advent of social security and / or governmental mechanisms to make up for disabled workers’ lack of income.
- Continuing jurisdiction –Currently, a claim’s limitation period begins to run at the date of last payment of a medical bill. A doctor’s delay in submitting a bill thus extends the time for a claim to lapse. The period should begin to run from the date of active medical treatment.
- Permanent Partial Disability (PPD) – Contested permanent partial cases often result in compromise between multiple medical reports on percentages of impairment. Require hearing officers to choose one amount instead of splitting the difference.
- Rebuttable Presumption – limit the application of the Rebuttable Presumption and enforce a no tolerance policy with regard to the controlled substances not prescribed by a physician
- PPD should not be paid when the allowance of a claim or of a condition is in court – An application should not be accepted until all of the litigation is completed.
- PPD should be a one-time award for an allowed condition – Claimant would be prevented from seeking additional percentage awards for the same condition.
- Voluntary abandonment / causal relation – Only where an injured worker’s loss of income is the result of an injury should lost time benefits be paid. When the loss of income is the result of something else, there is no causal relation b/w injury and the economic loss. Inconsistent application of theory in courts and IC result in need for codification.
- Payment in suspended claims – If a claim is suspended for an injured workers’ failure to honor a proper request to appear for an examination or to permit access to medical records, benefits should be forfeited.
- Loss of use awards – Limit loss of use claims to weekly benefits payable only for the period of time the injured worker is alive
