Proposed changes to workers' compensation system raise concerns (no coverage 4 undocumented immigran

[Omaha Steve]

This is so wrong.

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_3929

By Barb Kucera, Workday editor
8 February 2009

ST. PAUL - Labor and Industry Commissioner Steve Sviggum is recommending some major changes in the state's workers' compensation system, including cutting coverage for undocumented immigrants and providing incentives for injured workers to waive their legal rights. But a state advisory council that meets this week may not go along with the more radical aspects of his plan.
When a worker is injured on the job, the worker's compensation system provides for medical treatment, partial payment of wages while a worker recovers and assistance in rehabilitation and retraining. In extreme cases, workers are compensated for serious injuries such as the loss of a limb.

Under this "no-fault" process, workers are covered regardless of the circumstances of the injury and employers who purchase worker's compensation insurance are immune from lawsuits. The goal, Sviggum said in the annual Workers Compensation System Report, is "to make people as whole as soon as possible after an injury and return them to work."

In 2004, the most recent year for which data is available, 124,000 workers' compensation claims were paid in Minnesota, according to the Department of Labor and Industry. About 80 percent of the claims involved medical coverage only, while 20 percent involved both medical and "indemnity" benefits, such as lost wages and rehabilitation costs.

The number of workers' compensation claims has dropped in recent years, but the overall cost has risen, in part due to skyrocketing health care costs.

Last March, Sviggum – whose department oversees the workers' compensation system – announced the formation of three working groups to examine health care, vocational rehabilitation and billing and auditing processes. The work groups include members of the 12-person Workers Compensation Advisory Council, created by the Legislature in 1992. The council is split evenly between employer and employee representatives and includes the president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO and the president of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.
Sviggum said the system was in need of reform and charged the working groups with identifying changes that could be presented to the Minnesota Legislature for action this year.

FULL story at link.