Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner last night signed a bill providing a comprehensive reform of the state's workers' compensation system.

The measure, including the first major changes to the system in more than a decade, sailed through the House of Representatives 39-0 after gaining Senate passage the same day on an 18-0 vote.

Among the elements put into place are a medical fee schedule for injury treatment and tighter regulation of attorney fees.

Advocates of the measure are predicting it could save employers substantially on their rates.

Richard Stokes, a regional vice president for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), said the organization had not opposed the bill (S-1) or actively supported it.

Democratic Gov. Minner had announced workers' compensation reform as a key item in her legislative agenda for economic development.

A statement on her Web site mentioned that Delaware's workers' comp costs keep insurance premiums high for businesses. Cutting those costs back was seen as aiding state efforts to keep DaimlerChrysler from abandoning its Newark, Del. assembly plant.

Among other provisions in the bill's 38 pages are:

o Authorization for the Delaware Department of Insurance to order restitution against or for the benefit of self-insured employers in connection with findings of insurance fraud.

oA requirement that a new workers' comp rating plan be filed with the insurance commissioner within 90 days of the effective date of a medical payment system and practice guidelines.

oA requirement that carriers make rate filings 60 days after the adoption of each such rating plan.

oInstitution of procedures to collect data relevant to the state's comp system, including data concerning injury reports, mandatory insurance requirements and health care treatments and costs.

o Language to clarify the obligations of independent contractors and subcontractors with respect to maintaining workers' comp insurance.

o Requirements that attorneys' petitions to the state's Industrial Accident Board for fees must be accompanied by affidavit, and fees awarded to an employee's counsel offset any financial obligation the employee otherwise has to its attorney.

o Procedures are due to be established for setting attorneys' fees in workers' compensation matters.

Attorneys representing employees must have written fee arrangements, and the measure limits an attorney's ability to collect fees from an employee's periodic benefit payments to special circumstances that are subject to verification and approval by the Industrial Accident Board.

o Employers or insurance carriers can make payments of indemnity benefits or health care benefits without prejudice to the right to later contest the employer's obligation to pay the expense in question.

o A Health Care Advisory Panel is to be established and charged with developing various health care cost containment and efficiency measures.

Special Reports /

Delaware Enacts Comp Reform Passage

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