Legislature(2021 - 2022)BARNES 124
04/05/2021 03:15 PM House LABOR & COMMERCE
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB30 | |
| HB149 | |
| HB110 | |
| Regulatory Commission of Alaska | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | HB 149 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 110 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 146 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| += | HB 30 | TELECONFERENCED | |
HB 30-WORKERS' COMP: DEATH; PERM PARTIAL IMPAIR
4:05:25 PM
CO-CHAIR SPOHNHOLZ announced that the first order of business
would be HOUSE BILL NO. 30, "An Act relating to notice of
workers' compensation death benefits; relating to the payment of
workers' compensation benefits in the case of permanent partial
impairment; relating to the payment of workers' compensation
death benefits; and providing for an effective date."
4:05:57 PM
CHARLES COLLINS, Director, Division of Workers' Compensation,
Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DLWD), started by
congratulating the board for being able to hold the cost of
premiums down, and reminded the committee that 2021 will be the
eighth year in a row that has seen a reduction in premiums to
employers. He added that that statistic comes with a caveat
because some things in workers' compensation haven't been
adjusted for many years. He stated that workers' compensation
is the only path that an injured worker has to compensation and
repairment after a workplace injury. Since 1959, when the
[workers' compensation] act was initially implemented, there
have been a number of updates, with the last major update
occurring in 2005.
MR. COLLINS shared that in Alaska, an employer has three days to
inform the Division of Workers' Compensation of an injury that
has occurred on the job. Most of the time, he continued, the
division gets a report of injury directly from the employer but
occasionally a medical provider supplies the report. If the
process goes smoothly, the injured employee will get
rehabilitated and return to the same job. He explained that
"90-plus percent" of injuries follow that procedure. He said
that occasionally, an employer wants to follow a different path
to rehabilitation than the employee, which is the type of case
that is brought before the board, but he shared that this
situation is rare, consisting of "six or seven hundred a year"
compared to 17,000 claims. He noted that there is a team of
lawyers and employee representatives that support this process.
He said that under Alaska workers' compensation law, the
employee is only required to pay for the first $300
consultation. If the employee prevails in the case, the legal
counsel gets paid through the [Workers' Compensation] Act and by
the employer, and the employee does not have to take on the
burden of that cost.
4:10:37 PM
CO-CHAIR SPOHNHOLZ invited questions from the committee.
4:10:56 PM
CO-CHAIR SPOHNHOLZ opened public testimony on HB 30. After
ascertaining that there was no one who wished to testify, she
closed public testimony.
4:11:13 PM
REPRESENTATIVE KAUFMAN directed attention to Section 2 of the
Sectional Analysis, which read as follows [original punctuation
provided]:
Section 2: Increases the base amount in AS
23.30.190(a), used to calculated [sic] the
compensation for permanent partial impairment, from
$177,000 (2000 amount) to $273,000 to account for
inflation and bring Alaska's compensation rate up to
the national average.
REPRESENTATIVE KAUFMAN asked if Alaska was at the national
average in the year 2000.
MR. COLLINS responded that in 2000, Alaska's baseline amount of
$177,000 was at the median rather than the average. In 2000,
the baseline was changed from $135,000 to $177,000 in an effort
to bring Alaska closer to the national standards. He explained
that due to inflation, Alaska now needs to increase that number
again to align itself more closely to the national standards, as
Representative Josephson proposed in HB 30.
REPRESENTATIVE KAUFMAN commented that he finds this issue
complicated and that there is a lot of information to look
through.
MR. COLLINS replied that it takes a doctor's rating to receive a
whole body impairment percentage. The baseline of $177,000 is
used as a starting point to calculate compensation. He
explained that some states, such as Washington, break the
compensation out by injured body part instead of considering the
whole body. The doctors determine the percentage using the
American Medical Association (AMA) guide and then determine the
compensation amount starting from the $177,000 baseline, which
he reiterated has not been updated in 21 years.
4:15:22 PM
CO-CHAIR SPOHNHOLZ invited questions from the committee.
4:15:45 PM
CO-CHAIR FIELDS moved to report HB 30 out of committee with
individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes.
There being no objection, HB 30 was reported from the House
Labor and Commerce Standing Committee.