For Immediate Release:
March 29, 2004
President Pro Tempore Cal Hobson
Hobson Says Bill That Would Disadvantage
Injured Workers Won’t Get Hearing in Senate Committee
Saying House Bill 2619 would further disadvantage
workers injured on the job and end up costing employers
and taxpayers millions of dollars more each year, Senate
President Pro Tempore Cal
Hobson announced Monday that the bill will not be granted
a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday.
The announcement effectively kills the measure, which is
authored in the Senate by Senator Scott Pruitt, R-Broken
Arrow.
Hobson said, however, that he still believes it’s
possible for the Legislature to address workers compensation
reform before the end of the Second Session of the 49th
Oklahoma Legislature in May, “but we’re not
going to do it with this bill.”
“The proponents of House Bill 2619 have tried to extort
support for the bill out of members of the State Senate.
But the bill is so bad that their efforts have backfired.
Their campaign materials ask Oklahomans to tell Senators
to ‘start listening to Oklahoma workers.’
“Our members have been listening and workers are telling
us they don’t favor House Bill 2619 because it doesn’t
do anything to benefit injured workers and includes a number
of provisions that would make it harder for workers to be
justly compensated when they are injured on the job,”
Hobson said.
The section of law that House Bill 2619 amends contains
dozens of pages that spells out the benefits to injured
workers for a long list of enumerated injuries.
“This legislation does not increase even one of those
benefits. It doesn’t enact any new job safety initiatives.
Senator Pruitt’s suggestion that this bill benefits
injured workers is ludicrous. Quite the opposite is true.
It takes rights away from injured workers,” Hobson
said.
Pruitt claims that House Bill 2619 eliminates dueling doctors.
It does so, Hobson said, by making sure the only doctors
involved in the claims process are working for the injured
worker’s employer or the employer’s insurance
provider.
House Bill 2619 requires an injured worker to be seen by
a doctor within a certified workplace medical plan –
a doctor basically chosen by the employer’s insurance
company.
Currently there are four CWMPs in Oklahoma and state law
allows insurance companies to pick the doctors who treat
injured workers.
What HB 2619 changes is that only the employer can seek
a second opinion for purposes of the settlement of the worker’s
comp claim. If the employer’s first doctor is too
generous, the employer can get a second doctor to offer
a lower cost treatment recommendation.
“The bill eliminates dueling doctors by removing the
right of the employee to seek a second opinion for purposes
of the worker’s comp claim. How does that benefit
workers?” Hobson asked.
Senator Pruitt also touts the use of “value added
fees” in House Bill 2619.
The bill says that an attorney’s fees in workers’
compensation claims can be based only on the amount in dispute.
That means that if the company offers $1,000 and the injured
employee believes he or she should be entitled to $2,000
and hires an attorney then that attorney’s fees, should
the injured worker prevail in the case, will be based only
on the amount eventually awarded to the injured employee
that is above $1,000 – the employer’s original
offer.
“It is intended to limit access by the injured employee
to any legal remedy other than to take what his or her employer
is offering. Without access to a legal advocate, injured
employees are faced with a take-it-or-leave-it proposition,”
the Senate leader said.
“How does that benefit workers?” Hobson asked
again.
“We looked very closely and couldn’t find one
thing in this legislation that really helps workers. The
campaign waged by some of the biggest, most profitable companies
in Oklahoma has suggested that legislators who wouldn’t
sign a pledge and give away their right to think and consider
this bill on its merits weren’t listening to Oklahoma
workers.
“The truth is we’ve been listening to Oklahoma
workers and they’re telling us that they hate this
legislation. We agree with them,” Hobson said
Hobson said it doesn’t surprise him that those business
people pushing House Bill 2619 want to take away workers’
rights in an attempt to increase profits because that’s
the way they operate.
“What is surprising is that they support this bill
that two studies say will actually cost employers and taxpayers
millions of dollars more each year,” Hobson said.
A study conducted by two members of the Fallin Commission
on Worker’s Compensation Reform – one plaintiff’s
attorney and one attorney who represents employers and insurance
companies – concluded that the teleconferencing provisions
in the legislation would create a bureaucratic nightmare
that could annually cost state government and employers
$65 million more.
Another study completed by the state’s largest provider
of workers’ compensation insurance suggests that the
use of CWMPs will not create a savings for employers. The
study conducted by CompSource Oklahoma says using CWMPs
will increase medical costs, indemnity costs, fees and expenses.
“This is bad legislation, but so was the last cure-all
that Senator Pruitt offered to reform workers compensation,”
Hobson said.
"Pruitt previously championed an administrative courts
system for workers compensation like the ones used in Florida
and Texas. Legislative leaders killed those measures too
and for good reason," Hobson said.
“Texas and Florida rank in the top six states in workers’
comp rates in the country. Texas is literally in crisis
in its workers’ compensation system,” Hobson
said.
Instead of instituting Pruitt’s previous proposal,
lawmakers “cautiously” reformed the state system
and those reforms have made a positive difference.
“Oklahoma has made more progress in addressing the
costs associated with our system than almost any state in
the nation in the last decade. Claims are at a 30-year low
and, despite inflation, overall costs of the system have
fallen 24 percent since 1994. In January 2002, a Michigan
State University survey showed Oklahoma among the top five
states in the nation in enacting money-saving reforms in
recent years,” Hobson said.
The Senate leader pointed out that Senator Pruitt’s
most recent press release says Oklahoma’s workers’
compensation rates are among the highest in the nation and
benefits paid to workers in our state are among the lowest.
“My goal is to seek reforms that will lower rates
and increase benefits. House Bill 2619 fails on both accounts
and we’re not going to hear it. Speaker Adair and
I have a bill that can carry workers’ compensation
reforms and, later in the session, if we can find ways to
meet both of those goals then we’ll consider moving
forward with that bill,” Hobson said.
Governor Henry said recently that he is planning a working
group to seek workers’ compensation reforms and wants
to make sure all interested parties are included.
Hobson said Henry, during his 10 years as a member of the
State Senate, was a leader in workers’ compensation
reform efforts.
“We would be foolish not to look to the governor,
the architect of so many of our successful reforms over
the last decade, for guidance on this issue,” Hobson
said.
For
more information contact:
President
Pro Tempore's Office - (405) 521-5605
