by Dave Kaplan

Ah!  It's a new year, and the same six scariest words still ring in my ears ... "The Legislature is back in town!"  If you think I jest, one just needs to look at the "pay during appeal" and "ex parte contact" bills.  Expensive.  Unwieldy.  Unnecessary.  And Unfair.  But that won't stop them from moving along until someone helps kill them off ... or they get signed into law.  The "pay during appeal" bill has "legs" (i.e. - is likely to become law), unless we make the experience of passing it so miserable for legislators that they'll abandon the effort.  Please watch your emails.  If we ask you to call and email your legislators, DO IT RIGHT AWAY! 

What else is going whlie the "circus" is in town?  Plenty!  Here's the short list ...

Claims Suppression Rules.  Thank you to everyone who sent us your thoughts, comments and suggestions regardintg the "claim suppression" rules.  We submitted our comments to the Department by the January 31, 2008 deadling.  Now they have to respond.  We can only hope that they will take our constructive criticism into account when making final adjustments.  At a minimum, they are legally obligated to respond to every comment/question submitted on the record.  We hope to see that within the next month.  At least we know that the made changes based on our first, informal submittal back in October 2007.  To see WSIA's formal comments on Claim Suppression, go HERE.

Vocational Rehabilitation Rules.  As with the "claim suppression" rules, we have to thank our great members for all of the constructive feedback we received on the voc rehab pilot project rules.  The Department was responsive during the less formal stakeholdering process, adopting a number of our suggestions.  However, there were a number of inconsistencies that need to be ironed out, and not all of our proposed changes were adopted.  The deadline for submitting formal comments to the Department was January 31, 2008.  We hope to hear back on any responses and changes within the next month.  To see WSIA's formal comments on Vocational Rehabilitation, go HERE.

WSIA Amici Briefs.   The Legislature and the Department aren't the only venues where we've been actively fighting on your behalf; we've been fighting in court as well.  Last fall WSIA filed an amicus brief in some consolidated cases dealing with the payment and provision of interpreter services.  the injured workers also tried expanding the definition of wages to include all sorts of benefits (employer portion of social security taxes, etc).  The Mestrovac and Kustura cases were heard in Court of Appeals Division I on November 19th.  In less than two months, the Court issued three decisions saying that employers, the Department and the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals are not obligated to pay for all interpreter costs, just those directly related to the initial adjudication of the claim.  In addition, they said that all of those benefits are not part of wages, for purposes of determining time loss.  You can read a good summary of the cases HERE at the website.

The other amicus we filed was in the case of Harry v. Buse Timber.  The Court of Appeals had ruled that hearing loss was a special case where a series of benefit schedules should be used to determine the appropriate compensation.  WSIA filed an amicus brief saying that there is no third type of claim under the law: either it's an injury or an occupational disease.  There is no "hybrid."  Oral arguments were held in the Washington Supreme Court on January 22, 2008.  A ruling on this case could occur sometime between this fall and the end of 2009.

Supplemental Pension Fund & Other Assessments.  As with the Second Injury Fund, a group of self-insured employers frustrated with the assessment methodology for the Supplemental Pension Fund are evaluating alternatives to the current funding of COLA's on self-insured pensions.  A meeting will be held at the end of this month looking at these issues.  WSIA will report back on the options being considered, and what it would take to make a change.

WSIA Training Programs Submitted for DLI CEC's.  WSIA finally received back the Department's first awarding of Continuing Education Credits for maintaining their Certified Claims Administrator certification.  Needless to say we were disappointed in their evaluation, and a few programs have been resubmitted with additional information.  We hope the Department will be more thoughtful in their evaluation of these programs.  To see how many CEC's they've awarded, and for which programs, click HERE.

There are many other things going on, but those listed above are by far the most significant to bring to your attention for now.

Please check back here once a month (assuming the Legislature hasn't driven me to curl up in the fetal position on the floor in the corner of my office, and whimper like a newborn puppy) for updated thoughts and a rundown of what your Association is doing on behalf of your organization!

Posted 5 February 2008

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