00                          SENATE BILL NO. 159 am H                                                                      
01 "An Act relating to medical and rehabilitation information in workers' compensation                                     
02 matters; increasing the maximum funeral expenses payable as a workers' compensation                                     
03 death benefit; and providing for an effective date."                                                                    
04 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                                
05    * Section 1. AS 23.30.108 is amended by adding new subsections to read:                                            
06            (d)  If the employee files a petition seeking a protective order to recover                                  
07       medical and rehabilitation information that has been provided but is not related to the                           
08       employee's injury, and the board or the board's designee grants the protective order,                             
09       the board or the board's designee granting the protective order shall direct the division,                        
10       the board, the commission, and the parties to return to the employee, as soon as                                  
11       practicable following the issuance of the protective order, all medical and                                       
12       rehabilitation information, including copies, in their possession that is unrelated to the                        
13       employee's injury under the protective order.                                                                     
14            (e)  If the board or the board's designee limits the medical or rehabilitation                               

01       information that may be used by the parties to a claim, either by an order on the record                          
02       or by issuing a written order, the division, the board, the commission, and a party to                            
03       the claim may request and an employee shall provide or authorize the production of                                
04       medical or rehabilitation information only to the extent of the limitations of the order.                         
05       If information has been produced that is outside of the limits designated in the order,                           
06       the board or the board's designee shall direct the party in possession of the information                         
07       to return the information to the employee as soon as practicable following the issuance                           
08       of the order.                                                                                                   
09    * Sec. 2.  AS 23.30.215(a) is amended to read:                                                                     
10            (a)  If the injury causes death, the compensation is known as a death benefit                                
11       and is payable in the following amounts to or for the benefit of the following persons:                           
12                 (1)  reasonable and necessary funeral expenses not exceeding $10,000                                
13       [$5,000];                                                                                                         
14                 (2)  if there is a widow or widower or a child or children of the                                       
15       deceased, the following percentages of the spendable weekly wages of the deceased:                                
16                      (A)  80 percent for the widow or widower with no children;                                         
17                      (B)  50 percent for the widow or widower with one child and 40                                     
18            percent for the child;                                                                                       
19                      (C)  30 percent for the widow or widower with two or more                                          
20            children and 70 percent divided equally among the children;                                                  
21                      (D)  100 percent for an only child when there is no widow or                                       
22            widower;                                                                                                     
23                      (E)  100 percent, divided equally, if there are two or more                                        
24            children and no widow or widower;                                                                            
25                 (3)  if the widow or widower remarries, the widow or widower is                                         
26       entitled to be paid in one sum an amount equal to the compensation to which the                                   
27       widow or widower would otherwise be entitled in the two years commencing on the                                   
28       date of remarriage as full and final settlement of all sums due the widow or widower;                             
29                 (4)  if there is no widow or widower or child or children, then for the                                 
30       support of father, mother, grandchildren, brothers, and sisters, if dependent upon the                        
31       deceased at the time of injury, 42 percent of the spendable weekly wage of the                                    

01       deceased to such beneficiaries, share and share alike, not to exceed $20,000 in the                               
02       aggregate;                                                                                                        
03                 (5)  $5,000 to a surviving widow or widower, or equally divided among                                   
04       surviving children of the deceased if there is no widow or widower.                                               
05    * Sec. 3. The uncodified law of the State of Alaska is amended by adding a new section to                          
06 read:                                                                                                                   
07       APPLICABILITY. The death benefit for funeral expenses under AS 23.30.215(a)(1),                                   
08 as amended by sec. 2 of this Act, applies to an injury occurring on or after the effective date                         
09 of this Act.                                                                                                            
10    * Sec. 4. This Act takes effect immediately under AS 01.10.070(c).