April 8, 2011
Republicans File Workers’ Compensation Bill (HB 709)
Payback for corporate executives will cost injured workers big
The Workers’ Compensation bill we have all been expecting (and dreading) has arrived – HB 709. You can read the bill here: http://ncleg.net/Sessions/2011/Bills/House/PDF/H709v0.pdf.
House Bill 709 has many provisions, some very complicated, but these include provisions that:
- Artificially cut off benefits after 500 weeks in most cases, regardless of whether the worker has any wage earning capacity;
- Severely limit the ability of an injured employee to be treated or evaluated by any doctor except the doctor picked by the employer or the insurance company, and allow benefits to be cut off based upon a claim that the worker is not cooperating;
- Require an injured worker to take almost any job, regardless of pay, or have benefits cut off;
- Give insurance companies almost unfettered rights to examine a worker’s medical records and talk to the treating physician, all without the worker’s permission;
- Reduces the size of the Industrial Commission by two, eliminating two of the more experienced Commissioners and requiring that future appointments be approved by the legislature.
Please call or email your Representative as soon as possible and ask him or her to oppose House Bill 709!
Contact your Representative today and urge him or her to, “oppose House Bill 709.” Tell your Representative that, “working families back home are counting on legislators to protect our stable workers compensation system and make protecting injured workers–not corporate profits and insurance companies–a priority.”
Click here to look up your elected state Representative online. Call the capital switchboard at 919-733-7928 and ask to be connected to his or her office. When you call, be polite. If no one answers, leave a message. Be sure to include your name, phone number, the city or town where you live, and ask for a response.
The Workers’ Comp bill / HB 709 is an attack on workers’ rights. HB 709 is an effort to shift a cost rightly born by the employers of injured workers onto taxpayers. HB 709 is an affront to widely held notions of patient-doctor confidentiality. HB 709 is an effort to rig the system against injured workers and their families in order to protect corporate profits and insurance companies. HB 709 is payback to corporate executives and the N.C. Chamber of Commerce for their substantial investments in the 2010 election.
Click here to read our Legislative Alert on Workers’ Comp Bill / HB 709. Please take a moment to read the alert and contact your State Representative.
i want to oppose the hb709 bill.if a family member of the people who are trying to push this through were ill or who needed to be on workmans comp they would not be doing this. just think about the people who are ill and have to be on workmans comp. please do not pass the hb709 bill. think deep and hard what if it were your mother,father,sister or brother or even yourself. god bless you
As an injured Health Care worker, I live the reality. The Bills proposed do not work for rehab of the injured worker but for the pockets of the Ins. Companies hired by the employer. These companies have been handsomely paid for coverage. These same companies are responsible for massive medical bills generated due to their lack of response in providing timely, continual care to enhance the success of recovery and return to work of the injured worker, thus causing relapses in medical progress and/or worsening of the injury due to delay. It is often a ploy by these same companies to provide treatment for pain symptoms instead of the actual resolution of the injury. That may very well provide a means to return to work but often delays actual healing and leads to repetitive, often invasive procedures which are required to keep the worker in the work place while causing further injury. Time and expense are also wasted in requiring exams by Insurance appointed Physicians when excellent coverage has been provided by well qualified local Physicians and Specialists. Also, organization of information most often is lacking. In my personal experience, I have had 6 to 8 different adjusters, all of whom basically have no clue as to the nature of the injury in totality. So, decisions in my care are based on scattered and incomplete details. How do I know this? I have excellent Caregivers who have been proactive in providing needed care, who have often contacted these Insurance adjusters to request tests and therapies to further the healing and rehab process. In these instances, the adjuster did not know about procedures that had been approved and completed or their results. I ask you…how can they make an informed decision on further care or medical readiness to return to work based on partial, incomplete information?
My point…the Worker’s Compensation Law in NC is poorly regulated and biased to the benefit of the Insurance Industry as it stands today. These proposed Bills will destroy any check and balance system that may exist and fail to provide a means to support injured worker’s in NC. Thus…I become a Tax payer’s problem.
I live the reality and have been fighting to recover my health and my Career for over 5 years…inclusive of out of pocket funds, 3 surgeries, massive pain and incredible frustrations. I was injured doing my job, in the middle of saving a life…these are the consequences I get?