Legislative Committee to Wrap up Work on Workers’ Comp
A legislative committee is expected to decide next week whether to endorse potential legislation crafted by a coalition of labor and management representatives to try to improve the workers’ compensation system.
The Economic Affairs Interim Committee, which has been studying workers’ compensation for more than a year, will meet Thursday, Aug. 19, at 8 a.m. in Room 137 of the State Capitol. The public is welcome to attend and will have a chance to comment on the work of the committee.
A complete agenda and other meeting information are available on the legislative Web site at www.leg.mt.gov/eaic.
The state Labor-Management Advisory Council has asked the committee to endorse a bill draft that it believes will help lower the costs of the workers' compensation system in some ways and raise it in others. The council has asked the committee to retain the balancing act they recommend. A cost-benefit analysis of the proposal will be available at the meeting.
Key changes in the proposed bill include:
ways to settle medical claims or to completely close claims;
provisions to change how certain benefits are obtained so that more emphasis is put on getting injured workers back to work as early as possible;
a provision to define when a worker is within the course and scope of employment; and
a provision that would require insurers to pay attorney fees in certain circumstances instead of the current practice of using medical settlement funds to pay the attorney.
Also at the meeting, the committee will consider potential bill drafts relating to:
how the Montana State Fund operates;
how the state Department of Livestock handles animal health orders, and
how boards that license health care providers and pharmacists handle programs designed to assist those licensees with substance addictions.
The committee also will hear a final report on ways that state agencies might cooperate in providing animal and wildlife laboratory services, and it will hear proposals for legislation from the State Auditor’s Office and the state departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor and Industry.
The meeting will be broadcast over the legislative Web site at www.leg.mt.gov and over TVMT, the state government public access television network. To find a local TVMT channel, visit www.leg.mt.gov/tvmt.
Members of the Economic Affairs Interim Committee are Sen. Jim Keane (D-Butte), chair; Sen. Roy Brown (R-Billings); Sen. Ken Hansen (D-Harlem); Sen. Ryan Zinke (R-Whitefish); Rep. Chuck Hunter (D-Helena); Rep. Michele Reinhart (D-Missoula), Rep. Don Roberts (R-Billings); and Rep. Gordon Vance (R-Bozeman), vice chair.
For more information, contact Pat Murdo, committee staff, at 406-444-3594 or pmurdo@mt.gov.
