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Sunday, September 8, 2013

Workers’ Compensation Task Force meets

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from delaware.newszap.com


The Workers’ Compensation Task Force reconvened Friday to kick off a series of monthly meetings designed to further address the state of Delaware’s workers compensation premiums.

Four months earlier, the task force presentation an 18-point plan to reform the state’s increasing workers’ compensation. The plan was translated to legislation and signed into law in June.

“We have had some developments since we issued our report,” said Lt. Gov. Matthew Denn, the chairman of the 20-member task force.

Since 2007, the state has been working to cut back on high premium rates. Insurance legislation enacted in 2007, Senate Bill 1, included provisions to create a Health Care Advisory Panel (consisting mostly of health care personnel) to reform the payment system and develop practice guidelines for the most common workplace injuries, as well as create a Data Collections Committee. The reforms passed helped the state facilitate nearly a 40 percent decrease in rates, jumping from having the nation’s third most expensive workers compensation premiums in 2006 to the 34th most expensive by 2010, according to the Oregon Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking Summary.

But, the premium rate has skyrocketed since then, rising over 40 percent in two years.

The legislation, House Bill 175, addresses the task force’s four major workers compensation concerns.
Curbing the high workers compensation medical costs was a priority, so the...
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