If déà vu were an occupational disease, most of us would be on workers’ compensation.
On March 28, the Assembly Insurance Committee will hear the latest, largely irrelevant data from the Division of Workers’ Compensation on prospective wage loss for injured workers. Not surprisingly, because the wage data are largely from before the major increases in Assembly Bill 749 (Calderon), ex-Governor Gray Davis’ lasting gift to organized labor, the data show that wage replacement figures are not that much better than they were a decade prior, when RAND collected its data. Does this mean that the reforms in Senate Bill 899 (Poochigian) have failed? Not in the slightest.
That, of course, will not stop the injured-worker advocates from rending their garments over the obscene profits of the insurance industry and the windfall to self-insured employers. Indeed, the reforms have added to the bottom line of most businesses, but profitable businesses do not automatically mean that the profits are on the backs of injured workers.
There seems to be a general consensus that what is good for California business is good for California workers. The better the business climate, the better the life for those who work in California. ¿ habla Nevada? Rather not, if you don’t mind.
Permanent disability benefits were not particularly generous prior to SB 899. That was the trade-off for having by far the highest PD frequency in the nation, which somehow goes along with the largest number of applicant attorneys.
Medical benefits are generous by any standards – even today. That segments of the medical community are not able to overtreat, overbill and overprescribe anymore doesn’t mean that utilization review is evil; it means that the patient is expected to get well. That shouldn’t be a novel concept, but it is likely that those who advocate for the injured worker are not going to include that in their talking points.
Business advocates are likely to address bottom-line issues as well. Their bottom line is profitability and being able to manage workers’ compensation claims. As for the insurance lobby, they will probably be seen grazing in a field of clover somewhere near Stockton.
For the business community, the prime issue is and remains jobs – not profits. The confusing jumble of obligations on employers, especially small employers, as it relates to returning injured employees to work – regardless of whether the injury was on the job – winds up not serving anyone. If the objective is to punish the employer for not leaving a job open for years, then the current system is performing. If the objective is to find a job for a willing worker, the system is an abysmal failure.
But then again, this isn’t really about jobs, is it? It really isn’t about benefits, either. If the financial bottom line of the business community begins to look a little too green, then labor needs to get its hands on it.
Five years ago, it was temporary disability and PD at the higher end. Because those have been taken care of, labor needs to redirect the largesse toward the low end of PD. It is all about deliverables and maintaining the decades-long conflict in Sacramento, where the “win-win” scenario is anathema.
Later in the afternoon on the 28th, the Senate Insurance Committee will hold a hearing on the recent controversies about the State Compensation Insurance Fund. Organized labor has a seat on its board, and at least one statewide labor organization of note has as one of its guiding principles that there should be a monopolistic state fund. One has to wonder whether the outrage expressed in the morning will be expressed in the afternoon.
Somehow, I doubt it. And that, truly, is an outrage.