Tennessee is moving to replace its court-based workers compensation dispute-resolution system with an administrative process used by all but three states.
Workers, union officials and plaintiffs' lawyers all oppose the changes but each acknowledges that passage of a measure is just a matter of time. The governor is strongly promoting it.
Lawmakers in Alabama and Oklahoma, the other two states with court-based systems, are also moving toward adopting an administrative-based system.
The Tennessee Senate on April 1 passed legislation (SB 200) that would establish a new Court of Workers Compensation Claims, and the House Finance Committee passed a companion bill (HB 194) on April 2.
Passage of the bills has mostly been along party lines, according to Rocky McElhaney, a plaintiff's lawyer from Nashville who opposes the changes.
The changes in the system are meant to reduce costs to businesses operating in the states, according to trade associations the Property Casualty Insurers Association of American (PCI) and the American Insurance Association (AIA).
The AIA says it is pleased the bills are moving through state lawmakers.
"We applaud Gov. Bill Haslam, R, and his administration for leading the legislative initiative to reform Tennessee's workers' compensation system," says Ron Jackson, AIA vice president, state affairs.
AIA says replacing the current court-based system with an administrative-based system is the right approach, as it will improve the efficiency in Tennessee's workers' compensation system for both employers and employees, Jackson adds.
The measures' opponents are concerned the proposed legislation would have the new dispute resolution system housed within the Division of Workers Compensation, an agency within the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Unions and worker groups are concerned injured employee cases would no longer be heard in court, but by special judges selected by the person the governor picks to run the DWC.
At hearing on the bills, labor groups have expressed concern about the bills' fast-track with no proper representation and input from people who stand to lose benefits.
About 50 people gathered at the state Capitol last week to protest the legislation. There were chants of "We want justice" and signs bearing slogans like: "Don't Gut Workers' Comp."
Haslam called the current system "antiquated," and says the proposed legislation would create a more competitive business environment, and would allow workers' claims to be handled quicker.
Elhaney says that under the governor's plan, claims "will be removed from the independence of the court system and oversight of the legislature and placed under a newly-created workers' comp government bureaucracy where Haslam will hand-select the State's 'work comp czar', who will make the rules, determine what injuries are covered, hand-select the judges, review all decisions, determine what medical care workers get and hire all the so-called neutral employee to assist the workers."
McElhaney adds, "If that is not enough power brokering, Haslam will also appoint the three appeals judges."
The bill will "not make it faster and easier to get benefits when out-of-state insurance companies wrongfully deny benefits to workers who rightfully deserve them," McElhaney says. Instead, he adds, the legislation will make it easier to deny benefits and harder to fight a wrongful denial.
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