Attorney THeodore Ronca, a well-known workers’ compensation attorney in NY knows the history of workers’ compensation and offers his perspective on possible health care reforms and workers’ compensation. In 1993, when a national heath care bill was being drafted, the workers’ compensation community asked, without receiving a reply, “What about workers’ compensation?” The legislation died without much discussion of the issue but it was clear workers’ compensation was, and remains, a thorny issue.
The principal problem is medical care and disability payments have become part of a network of laws and private programs different in each state. When a new program appears it necessarily affects all others even where no effect is intended. Social Security co-existed with workers’ compensation for decades with little interaction until the disability benefits portions were enacted. Following that, entirely new claims strategies appeared varying from state to state, depending on local law.
Simply removing the medical portion of workers’ compensation (a measure proposed in New York during the 1960s, the so-called “Canadian” model) was vehemently opposed by every part of the workers’ compensation community because profit in writing workers’ compensation would seriously diminish but the hours of work on each file would not.
Claimants’ attorneys would lose the ability to select a medical provider – always a workers’ compensation regular – and lose the predictability of future reports. A small, but significant, portion of the medical community would be without work. A large volume of necessary medical testimony would have to be done by treating physicians who loathed appearances at the Board.
Today in 2009, once again workers’ compensation becomes the invisible giant which cannot be ignored but cannot be discussed. For decades, workers’ compensation has been an important bargaining chip in labor negotiations. Unions are a major source of work for large compensation firms. The firms, when aggressive, can flood a single employer with hundreds, even thousands, of claims.
The engines driving every compensation claim are the medical reports. If they arrive with random conclusions they become a vehicle stuck in neutral – making annoying noises but going nowhere. A national medical program is certain to cause that, which is why opposition exists which would prefer not to discuss its role. Every claimant’s attorney knows what happens when a medical report arrives from a physician or surgeon who does not know, or care to learn, the nuances of phrasing a compensation medical report. (workersxzcompxzkit)
What will happen? In the presence of a deafening silence on the subject it is difficult, and unwise, to say. It can be said, however, many unintended and unpleasant, consequences are certain. This is the unfailing scenario following the introduction of every social insurance program.
Author: Attorney Theodore Ronca a practicing lawyer from Aquebogue, NY, has written on the history of work comp. He is a frequent writer and speaker, and has represented employers in the areas of workers’ compensation, Social Security disability, employee disability plans and subrogation for over 30 years. Attorney Ronca can be reached at 631-722-2100.
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