N.D. Comp Agency Outlines Impact of New Legislation

North Dakota employers, workers and medical providers will all be affected by workers’ compensation legislation enacted by the legislature, according to a statement released by state’s monopoly insurer, Worforce Safety & Insurance.

The bills signed by Gov. John Hoeven will, among other things, provide additional benefits for injured workers, broaden and expand existing safety programs for employers and streamline communications with medical providers.

WSI Board Chair Bob Indivik called it “the most comprehensive workers’ compensation package to come out of a legislative session” since 1997. Most of the new laws go into effect Aug. 1, 2005.

Among the key injury provisions:
— A $15 million dollar revolving education loan fund for qualified injured workers.
— Increases “Guardian Scholarships” amounts for spouses and children of workers killed on the job.
— Provides more choices and options for injured workers who have temporary disabilities during their healing process.
— Caps temporary and total disability payments at two years with five years of additional payments for temporary partial disability.
— Changes the permanent and total disability definition moving from a subjective to an objective standard.
— Increases nondependency payments from $2,000 to $12,500 for the estate administration of workers killed on the job who do not have a spouse.
— Establishes an interim legislative workers’ compensation review panel to listen to injured workers’ issues about the law as it applied to their cases.
— Recalculates the additional benefit payable before the Social Security offset to provide more dollars to those injured workers receiving this post-retirement benefit.

Among the key employer provisions:
— Broadens and expands existing safety-discount, safety education, safety incentives and matching safety grant programs. WSI said it is prepared to commit up to $35 million dollars for multi-year safety initiatives.
— Waives the $250 medical assessment for work injuries that are reported by midnight of the following business day.
— Allows WSI to set up an annual procedure for those asserting independent contractor status.
— Simplifies the calculation of premium for employers carrying optional coverage on their children.
— Establishes that each of the 5 employer representatives of the 11-member WSI board must be either a principal owner, CEO or CFO of the employer.
— Mandates that the discount rate used in evaluating the WSI Reserve Fund may not exceed 6 percent and the reserves plus surplus must be at least 120 percent, but not exceed 140 percent of the actuarially established discounted reserve.
— Eliminated the requirement that employers provide the nine-digit ZIP codes of all their employees’ home addresses.

And key medical provisions:
— Clarifies the ability of health-care personnel to communicate directly with employers on injured workers’ return-to-work issues.
— Allows WSI to share social security numbers with medical facilities as unique identifiers for injured workers.

Topics Legislation Workers' Compensation