Posted On: April 10, 2008, 5:03 pm CDT

Posted By: lastbat

Actually the only monopolistic state on the list was Washington; Oregon and Idaho are free-market states for W/C.

The problem for those of us on the consumer end of workers' compensation is the disparate laws in the various states. Most states have the same basics, such as: 3 days before time-loss; you have a year to file; 5 years for aggravation; and so forth. Where we run into problems is in how states deal with moving a claim forward. A federal system would alleviate that. I use western states because my company currently doesn't operate east of the Rockies.

Washington L&I has a kick-*ss online claims-management system in ORCA. I can see everything I need to in almost real-time. The only other system that even approaches it is SAIF's (Oregon's state-owned workers' comp provider) and even they don't give me everything I want. Oregon has the Employer-At-Injury Program, funded by workers' comp premiums (but doesn't drive the premiums up). EAIP pays for wage reimbursement, tools, jobsite modifications and other items to assist in bringing workers back on modified duty. This is coupled with the Preferred Worker Program, that goes beyond the basic premium exemption and claim-forgiveness of most states and includes thousands of dollars in wage reimbursement and jobsite modifications. Idaho allows me to tell my employees where to go if they are injured on the job so I can guarantee a good relationship with the provider and don't have to worry about my employee going to a doctor that doesn't understand workers' comp and hates employers.

Just my thoughts.