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WSIA President's Column
By
Sherri Phillips, Educational Service District #112
President, WSIA
Once again your Association enters another cold winter, attempting to avoid the blizzard of legislation being considered by the Legislature. Here’s a flavor for a number of things the Association has going on your behalf …
- Vice-President for Legislation Donna Egeland of Alaska Airlines, WSIA Lobbying Coordinator Kathleen Collins, and WSIA Executive Director Dave Kaplan have been scurrying about trying to fend off the larger impact pieces of legislation … namely a bill requiring employers to “pay during appeal” on employer appeals to the BIIA, and a bill prohibiting “ex parte contact” after a claim has been appealed to the BIIA. You can read more about these and other issues in the LegLink legislative reports here at the WSIA website.
- WSIA has submitted a number of our programs (and others) to the Department for consideration for Claims Administrator Continuing Education Credits. As of February 1, 2008, the Department’s Curriculum Committee has reviewed and awarded credits on 11 training programs, conferences, Region meetings, and non-WSIA programs. You can find the credits awarded for both the Department’s CEC’s and WSIA’s WWCP CEC’s HERE at the website. In addition to the credits being awarded, the Department is in the process of developing the mandatory training they said would be part of the CEC process. The first training is likely to show up in May 2008. In terms of Certified Claims Administrators submitting their CEC’s to the Department, that will likely be a manual process until the Department has their website and newly acquired software up and running – probably in 2009. Certified Claims Administrators should soon see a newsletter that will outline how to submit CEC’s, probably in mid-February. We will continue to keep you all in the loop as to the progress the Department is making, and what WSIA is doing to hold them accountable for making the CEC program successful. However, it’s important for you to note that it is YOUR responsibility and YOUR choice on whether to maintain your state Certification through CEC’s or by re-taking the test. Please check HERE to see how many CEC’s you need, dependent on when your Certification expires.
- Speaking of the Claims Administrator Certification exam, WSIA Training Coordinator Bonnie Prater and IIU Board of Regents Chair Lisa Vivian have been meeting with the Department to discuss and address concerns regarding the Certification exam that you have brought to our attention – from qualifications to take the exam, application process, sharing of results with the students, and the exam itself. We’ll keep you up to date as developments occur.
- Our Spring Conference will be held in Tacoma this year, with a great opportunity to listen to and pick the brain of key employees at the Department of Labor & Industries. “The Department of Labor & Industries from A to Z” is the theme of the conference, and will cover the SIEDRS project, ORION project, difficulty in recruiting and retaining medical providers, self-insured audits, State Fund and self-insured joint order process on occupational disease claims, an update on the voc rehab pilot project, and what you need to help the new claims teams at the Department help you obtain wage orders. Don’t miss your chance to get your questions addressed by those who have the answers!
- As a reminder, you have three very hard working members of the WSIA Board of Directors looking out for your interests with the Department. Tammy Vibbert of Lakeside Industries and Karen Hintz of Sedgwick CMS are your Liaison Committee representatives. To see what they’ve been doing to help address your specific claims concerns, see their latest report HERE. If ever you have specific claims issues you want/need addressed, please contact them. Nikki Cross of ProBuild Lumbermans is your Safety Liaison. She attends the WISHA Advisory Committee meetings, and keeps track of safety related rules and issues that crop up at the Department and in the community at large. All three of these people are dedicated members of your Association, so when you see them please take the time to thank them for their efforts on our behalf.
There are lots of other projects and issues that are bubbling around that WSIA is keeping an eye on. As they develop, you can be certain we’ll keep you informed and ask for your input. We know that you’re swamped with your full-time job responsibilities, and we try and be judicious in asking for your time to help out. So when we ask for you to email a legislator, or call the Department, or volunteer to present at a conference, it’s because we value you and your knowledge and experience. This is YOUR association, so please don’t hesitate to help out if you can. We draw our strength from our members, and from a good staff in Olympia. But mostly we get our strength from you. Please, never forget that.
See you at the Spring Conference at the Best Western Tacoma Dome Hotel!
Sherri Phillips, ESD #112
President
Washington Self-Insurers Association
Updated 5 February 2008
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