BILL REQ. #: H-1537.1
State of Washington | 62nd Legislature | 2011 Regular Session |
Read first time 02/09/11. Referred to Committee on Labor & Workforce Development.
AN ACT Relating to industrial insurance long-term disability; but only with respect to permanent partial disability awards, limiting pension awards following a permanent partial disability award, terminating pensions when the workplace residuals are not the predominant factor in a workers' inability to work or be retrained, creating the stay-at-work program, allowing wages for persons receiving long-term disability, and creating the safety and health projects program; amending RCW 51.04.110, 51.32.060, 51.32.067, 51.32.080, and 51.32.160; reenacting and amending RCW 51.32.090; adding a new section to chapter 49.17 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 51.32 RCW; providing an effective date; providing an expiration date; and declaring an emergency.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 A new section is added to chapter 49.17 RCW
to read as follows:
(1) The director is authorized to provide funding from the medical
aid fund established under RCW 51.44.020, by grant or contract, for
safety and health investment projects for workplaces insured for
workers' compensation through the department's state fund. This shall
include projects to: Prevent workplace injuries, illnesses, and
fatalities; create early return-to-work programs; and to reduce long-term disability through the cooperation of employers and employees or
their representatives.
(2) Awards may be granted to organizations such as, but not limited
to, trade associations, business associations, employers, employees,
labor unions, employee organizations, joint labor and management
groups, and educational institutions in collaboration with state fund
employer and employee representatives.
(3) Awards may not be used for lobbying or political activities;
supporting, opposing, or developing legislative or regulatory
initiatives; any activity not designed to reduce workplace injuries,
illnesses, or fatalities; or reimbursing employers for the normal costs
of complying with safety and health rules.
(4) Awards should foster the development and implementation of
innovative and effective return-to-work programs that lead to improved
outcomes for injured workers. Funds for awards shall be distributed as
follows: Twenty-five percent for projects designed to develop and
implement innovative and effective return-to-work programs for injured
workers; twenty-five percent for projects that specifically address the
needs of small businesses; and fifty percent for projects that foster
workplace injury and illness prevention by addressing priorities
identified by the department in cooperation with the Washington
industrial safety and health act advisory committee and the workers'
compensation advisory committee.
Sec. 2 RCW 51.04.110 and 2010 c 8 s 14001 are each amended to
read as follows:
The director shall appoint a workers' compensation advisory
committee composed of ten members: Three representing subject workers,
three representing subject employers, one representing self-insurers,
one representing workers of self-insurers, and two ex officio members,
without a vote, one of whom shall be the chair of the board of
industrial appeals and the other the representative of the department.
The member representing the department shall be chair. This committee
shall conduct a continuing study of any aspects of workers'
compensation as the committee shall determine require their
consideration and shall assist in the identification of priorities for
safety and health investment projects as provided in chapter 49.17 RCW.
The committee shall report its findings to the department or the board
of industrial insurance appeals for such action as deemed appropriate.
The members of the committee shall be appointed for a term of three
years commencing on July 1, 1971 and the terms of the members
representing the workers and employers shall be staggered so that the
director shall designate one member from each such group initially
appointed whose term shall expire on June 30, 1972 and one member from
each such group whose term shall expire on June 30, 1973. The members
shall serve without compensation, but shall be entitled to travel
expenses as provided in RCW 43.03.050 and 43.03.060 as now existing or
hereafter amended. The committee may hire such experts, if any, as it
shall require to discharge its duties, and may utilize such personnel
and facilities of the department and board of industrial insurance
appeals as it shall need without charge. All expenses of this
committee shall be paid by the department.
Sec. 3 RCW 51.32.060 and 2007 c 284 s 2 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1) When the supervisor of industrial insurance shall determine
that permanent total disability results from the injury, the worker
shall receive monthly during the period of such disability:
(a) If married at the time of injury, sixty-five percent of his or
her wages.
(b) If married with one child at the time of injury, sixty-seven
percent of his or her wages.
(c) If married with two children at the time of injury, sixty-nine
percent of his or her wages.
(d) If married with three children at the time of injury,
seventy-one percent of his or her wages.
(e) If married with four children at the time of injury,
seventy-three percent of his or her wages.
(f) If married with five or more children at the time of injury,
seventy-five percent of his or her wages.
(g) If unmarried at the time of the injury, sixty percent of his or
her wages.
(h) If unmarried with one child at the time of injury, sixty-two
percent of his or her wages.
(i) If unmarried with two children at the time of injury,
sixty-four percent of his or her wages.
(j) If unmarried with three children at the time of injury,
sixty-six percent of his or her wages.
(k) If unmarried with four children at the time of injury,
sixty-eight percent of his or her wages.
(l) If unmarried with five or more children at the time of injury,
seventy percent of his or her wages.
(2) For any period of time where both husband and wife are entitled
to compensation as temporarily or totally disabled workers, only that
spouse having the higher wages of the two shall be entitled to claim
their child or children for compensation purposes.
(3) In case of permanent total disability, if the character of the
injury is such as to render the worker so physically helpless as to
require the hiring of the services of an attendant, the department
shall make monthly payments to such attendant for such services as long
as such requirement continues, but such payments shall not obtain or be
operative while the worker is receiving care under or pursuant to the
provisions of chapter 51.36 RCW and RCW 51.04.105.
(4) Should any further accident result in the permanent total
disability of an injured worker, he or she shall receive the pension to
which he or she would be entitled, notwithstanding the payment of a
lump sum for his or her prior injury.
(5)(a) In no event shall the monthly payments provided in this
section:
(((a))) (i) Exceed the applicable percentage of the average monthly
wage in the state as computed under the provisions of RCW 51.08.018 as
follows:
AFTER | PERCENTAGE | ||
June 30, 1993 | 105% | ||
June 30, 1994 | 110% | ||
June 30, 1995 | 115% | ||
June 30, 1996 | 120% |
Sec. 4 RCW 51.32.067 and 2006 c 154 s 1 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1) After a worker elects one of the options in (a), (b), or (c) of
this subsection, that option shall apply only if the worker dies during
a period of permanent total disability from a cause unrelated to the
injury, leaving a surviving spouse, child, children, or other
dependent. If, after making an election under this subsection, a
worker dies from a cause related to the injury during a period of
permanent total disability, his or her beneficiaries shall receive
benefits under RCW 51.32.050 (2) through (5).
(a) Option I. An injured worker selecting this option shall
receive the benefits provided by RCW 51.32.060, with no benefits being
paid to the worker's surviving spouse, children, or others.
(b) Option II. An injured worker selecting this option shall
receive an actuarially reduced benefit which upon death shall be
((continued throughout the life of and)) paid to the surviving spouse,
child, or other dependent as the worker has nominated by written
designation duly executed and filed with the department. The benefit
is payable to the designated beneficiary through their life or through
the period the injured worker would have been entitled to permanent
total disability benefits, whichever ends first.
(c) Option III. An injured worker selecting this option shall
receive an actuarially reduced benefit and, upon death, one-half of the
reduced benefit shall be ((continued throughout the life of and)) paid
to the surviving spouse, child, or other dependent as the worker has
nominated by written designation duly executed and filed with the
department. The benefit is payable to the designated beneficiary
through their life or through the period the injured worker would have
been entitled to permanent total disability benefits, whichever ends
first.
(2) The worker shall make the election in writing and the worker's
spouse, if any, shall consent in writing as a prerequisite to the
election of Option I.
(3) If the worker's nominated beneficiary is the worker's spouse,
and the worker and spouse enter into a dissolution of marriage after
the nomination has been made, the worker may apply to receive benefits
as calculated under Option I if the period of the worker's entitlement
to permanent total disability benefits has not ended. This change is
effective the date of the decree of dissolution of marriage, but no
more than one year prior to the date application for the change is
received in the department, provided the worker submits legally
certified documentation of the decree of dissolution of marriage.
(4) If the worker's nominated beneficiary dies, the worker may
apply to receive benefits as calculated under Option I if the period of
the worker's entitlement to permanent total disability benefits has not
ended. This change is effective the date of death, but no more than
one year prior to the date application for the change is received in
the department, provided the worker submits a certified copy of the
death certificate.
(5) The change in benefits authorized by subsections (3) and (4) of
this section is a one-time adjustment and will be permanent for the
((life of the worker)) period of the worker's entitlement to permanent
total disability benefits.
(6) The department shall adopt such rules as may be necessary to
implement this section.
Sec. 5 RCW 51.32.080 and 2007 c 172 s 1 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1)(a) Beginning with injuries on or after July 1, 2011, for the
permanent partial disabilities here specifically described, the injured
worker shall receive compensation as follows:
LOSS BY AMPUTATION | |
$140,533.00 | |
$126,480.00 | |
Of leg below knee joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | $112,427.00 |
Of leg at ankle (Syme) . . . . . . . . . . . . | $98,373.00 |
Of foot at mid-metatarsals . . . . . . . . . . . . | $49,187.00 |
$29,512.00 | |
joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | $17,707.00 |
$9,369.00 | |
$10,774.00 | |
$5,247.00 | |
$3,888.00 | |
Of lesser toe at distal interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | $984.00 |
$140,533.00 | |
$133,507.00 | |
$126,480.00 | |
$75,888.00 | |
$50,592.00 | |
$25,296.00 | |
$31.620.00 | |
$25,296.00 | |
$13,913.00 | |
$25,296.00 | |
$20,237.00 | |
$11,383.00 | |
$12,648.00 | |
$10,118.00 | |
Of ring finger at distal interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | $6,324.00 |
bone . . . . . . . . . . . . | $6,324.00 |
$5,059.00 | |
joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | $2,530.00 |
MISCELLANEOUS | |
$56,213.00 | |
$46,844.00 | |
$86,482.00 | |
$14,414.00 |
LOSS BY AMPUTATION | |
Of leg above the knee joint with short thigh stump (3" or less below the tuberosity of ischium) . . . . . . . . . . . . | $54,000.00 |
Of leg at or above knee joint with functional stump . . . . . . . . . . . . | 48,600.00 |
Of leg below knee joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 43,200.00 |
Of leg at ankle (Syme) . . . . . . . . . . . . | 37,800.00 |
Of foot at mid-metatarsals . . . . . . . . . . . . | 18,900.00 |
Of great toe with resection of metatarsal bone . . . . . . . . . . . . | 11,340.00 |
Of great toe at metatarsophalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 6,804.00 |
Of great toe at interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 3,600.00 |
Of lesser toe (2nd to 5th) with resection of metatarsal bone . . . . . . . . . . . . | 4,140.00 |
Of lesser toe at metatarsophalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 2,016.00 |
Of lesser toe at proximal interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 1,494.00 |
Of lesser toe at distal interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 378.00 |
Of arm at or above the deltoid insertion or by disarticulation at the shoulder . . . . . . . . . . . . | 54,000.00 |
Of arm at any point from below the deltoid insertion to below the elbow joint at the insertion of the biceps tendon . . . . . . . . . . . . | 51,300.00 |
Of arm at any point from below the elbow joint distal to the insertion of the biceps tendon to and including mid-metacarpal amputation of the hand . . . . . . . . . . . . | 48,600.00 |
Of all fingers except the thumb at metacarpophalangeal joints . . . . . . . . . . . . | 29,160.00 |
Of thumb at metacarpophalangeal joint or with resection of carpometacarpal bone . . . . . . . . . . . . | 19,440.00 |
Of thumb at interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 9,720.00 |
Of index finger at metacarpophalangeal joint or with resection of metacarpal bone . . . . . . . . . . . . | 12,150.00 |
Of index finger at proximal interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 9,720.00 |
Of index finger at distal interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 5,346.00 |
Of middle finger at metacarpophalangeal joint or with resection of metacarpal bone . . . . . . . . . . . . | 9,720.00 |
Of middle finger at proximal interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 7,776.00 |
Of middle finger at distal interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 4,374.00 |
Of ring finger at metacarpophalangeal joint or with resection of metacarpal bone . . . . . . . . . . . . | 4,860.00 |
Of ring finger at proximal interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 3,888.00 |
Of ring finger at distal interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 2,430.00 |
Of little finger at metacarpophalangeal joint or with resection of metacarpal bone . . . . . . . . . . . . | 2,430.00 |
Of little finger at proximal interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 1,944.00 |
Of little finger at distal interphalangeal joint . . . . . . . . . . . . | 972.00 |
MISCELLANEOUS | |
21,600.00 | |
18,000.00 | |
43,200.00 | |
7,200.00 |
Sec. 6 RCW 51.32.090 and 2007 c 284 s 3 and 2007 c 190 s 1 are
each reenacted and amended to read as follows:
(1) When the total disability is only temporary, the schedule of
payments contained in RCW 51.32.060 (1) and (2) shall apply, so long as
the total disability continues.
(2) Any compensation payable under this section for children not in
the custody of the injured worker as of the date of injury shall be
payable only to such person as actually is providing the support for
such child or children pursuant to the order of a court of record
providing for support of such child or children.
(3)(a) As soon as recovery is so complete that the present earning
power of the worker, at any kind of work, is restored to that existing
at the time of the occurrence of the injury, the payments shall cease.
If and so long as the present earning power is only partially restored,
the payments shall:
(i) For claims for injuries that occurred before May 7, 1993,
continue in the proportion which the new earning power shall bear to
the old; or
(ii) For claims for injuries occurring on or after May 7, 1993,
equal eighty percent of the actual difference between the worker's
present wages and earning power at the time of injury, but: (A) The
total of these payments and the worker's present wages may not exceed
one hundred fifty percent of the average monthly wage in the state as
computed under RCW 51.08.018; (B) the payments may not exceed one
hundred percent of the entitlement as computed under subsection (1) of
this section; and (C) the payments may not be less than the worker
would have received if (a)(i) of this subsection had been applicable to
the worker's claim.
(b) No compensation shall be payable under this subsection (3)
unless the loss of earning power shall exceed five percent.
(c) The prior closure of the claim or the receipt of permanent
partial disability benefits shall not affect the rate at which loss of
earning power benefits are calculated upon reopening the claim.
(4)(a) ((Whenever)) The legislature finds that long-term disability
and the cost of injuries is significantly reduced when injured workers
remain at work following their injury. To encourage employers at the
time of injury to provide light duty or transitional work for their
workers, wage subsidies and other incentives are made available to
employers insured with the department.
(b) The employer of injury ((requests that)) may provide light duty
or transitional work to a worker who is entitled to temporary total
disability under this chapter ((be certified by a physician or licensed
advanced registered nurse practitioner as able to perform available
work other than his or her usual work,)). The department shall obtain
from the physician or licensed advanced registered nurse practitioner
a statement confirming the light duty or transitional work is
consistent with the worker's medical restrictions related to the
injury. This statement must be obtained before the start of the light
duty or transitional work. The employer shall furnish to the physician
or licensed advanced registered nurse practitioner, with a copy to the
worker, a statement describing the work ((available)) with the employer
of injury in terms that will enable the physician or licensed advanced
registered nurse practitioner to relate the physical activities of the
job to the worker's disability. The physician or licensed advanced
registered nurse practitioner shall then determine whether the worker
is physically able to perform the work described. The worker's
temporary total disability payments shall ((continue until the worker
is released by his or her physician or licensed advanced registered
nurse practitioner for the work, and begins the work with the employer
of injury. If)) stop effective the date the light duty or transitional
job starts. Temporary total disability payments shall resume if the
work ((thereafter)) comes to an end before the worker's recovery is
sufficient in the judgment of his or her physician or licensed advanced
registered nurse practitioner to permit him or her to return to his or
her usual job, or to perform other available work offered by the
employer of injury((, the worker's temporary total disability payments
shall be resumed)). Should the available work described, once
undertaken by the worker, impede his or her recovery to the extent that
in the judgment of his or her physician or licensed advanced registered
nurse practitioner he or she should not continue to work, the worker's
temporary total disability payments shall be resumed when the worker
ceases such work at the direction of the physician or licensed advanced
registered nurse practitioner.
(((b))) (c) To further encourage employers to maintain the
employment of their injured workers, an employer insured with the
department and that offers work to a worker pursuant to this subsection
(4) shall be eligible for reimbursement of the injured worker's wages
for light duty or transitional work equal to fifty percent of the
basic, gross wages paid for that work, for a maximum of sixty-six work
days within a consecutive twenty-four month period. In no event may
the wage subsidies paid to an employer on a claim exceed ten thousand
dollars. Wage subsidies shall be calculated using the worker's basic
hourly wages or basic salary, and no subsidy shall be paid for any
other form of compensation or payment to the worker such as tips,
commissions, bonuses, board, housing, fuel, health care, dental care,
vision care, per diem, reimbursements for work-related expenses, or any
other payments. An employer may not, under any circumstances, receive
a wage subsidy for a day in which the worker did not actually perform
any work, regardless of whether or not the employer paid the worker
wages for that day.
(d) If an employer offers a worker work pursuant to this subsection
(4) and the worker must be provided with training or instruction to be
qualified to perform the offered work, the employer shall be eligible
for a reimbursement from the department for any tuition, books, fees,
and materials required for that training or instruction, up to a
maximum of one thousand dollars. Reimbursing an employer for the costs
of such training or instruction does not constitute a determination by
the department that the worker is eligible for vocational services
authorized by RCW 51.32.095 and 51.32.099.
(e) If an employer offers a worker work pursuant to this subsection
(4), and the employer provides the worker with clothing that is
necessary to allow the worker to perform the offered work, the employer
shall be eligible for reimbursement for such clothing from the
department, up to a maximum of four hundred dollars: PROVIDED,
HOWEVER, That an employer shall not receive reimbursement for any
clothing it provided to the worker that it normally provides to its
workers. The clothing purchased for the worker shall become the
worker's property once the work comes to an end.
(f) If an employer offers a worker work pursuant to this subsection
(4) and the worker must be provided with tools or equipment to perform
the offered work, the employer shall be eligible for a reimbursement
from the department for such tools and equipment and related costs as
determined by department rule, up to a maximum of two thousand five
hundred dollars. An employer shall not be reimbursed for any tools or
equipment purchased prior to offering the work to the worker pursuant
to this subsection (4). An employer shall not be reimbursed for any
tools or equipment that it normally provides to its workers. The tools
and equipment shall be the property of the employer.
(g) An employer may offer work to a worker pursuant to this
subsection (4) more than once, but in no event may the employer receive
wage subsidies for more than sixty-six days of work in a consecutive
twenty-four month period under one claim. An employer may continue to
offer work pursuant to this subsection (4) after the worker has
performed sixty-six days of work, but the employer shall not be
eligible to receive wage subsidies for such work.
(h) An employer shall not receive any wage subsidies or
reimbursement of any expenses pursuant to this subsection (4) unless
the employer has completed and submitted the reimbursement request on
forms developed by the department, along with all related information
required by department rules. No wage subsidy or reimbursement shall
be paid to an employer who fails to submit a form for such payment
within one year of the date the work was performed. In no event shall
an employer receive wage subsidy payments or reimbursements of any
expenses pursuant to this subsection (4) unless the worker's physician
or licensed advanced registered nurse practitioner has restricted him
or her from performing his or her usual work and the worker's physician
or licensed advanced registered nurse practitioner has released him or
her to perform the work offered.
(i) Payments made under (b) through (g) of this subsection are
subject to penalties under RCW 51.32.240(5) in cases where the funds
were obtained through willful misrepresentation.
(j) Once the worker returns to work under the terms of this
subsection (4), he or she shall not be assigned by the employer to work
other than the available work described without the ((worker's written
consent, or without prior review and)) approval ((by)) of the worker's
physician or licensed advanced registered nurse practitioner. An
employer who directs a claimant to perform work other than that
approved by the attending physician and without the approval of the
worker's physician or licensed advanced registered nurse practitioner
shall not receive any wage subsidy or other reimbursements for such
work.
(((c))) (k) If the worker returns to work under this subsection
(4), any employee health and welfare benefits that the worker was
receiving at the time of injury shall continue or be resumed at the
level provided at the time of injury. Such benefits shall not be
continued or resumed if to do so is inconsistent with the terms of the
benefit program, or with the terms of the collective bargaining
agreement currently in force.
(((d))) (l) In the event of any dispute as to the validity of the
work offered or as to the worker's ability to perform the available
work offered by the employer, the department shall make the final
determination pursuant to an order that contains the notice required by
RCW 51.52.060 and that is subject to appeal subject to RCW 51.52.050.
(5) An employer's experience rating shall not be affected by the
employer's request for or receipt of wage subsidies.
(6) The department shall create a Washington stay-at-work account
which shall be funded by assessments of employers insured through the
state fund for the costs of the payments authorized by subsection (4)
of this section and for the cost of creating a reserve for anticipated
liabilities. Employers may collect up to one-half the fund assessment
from workers.
(7) No worker shall receive compensation for or during the day on
which injury was received or the three days following the same, unless
his or her disability shall continue for a period of fourteen
consecutive calendar days from date of injury: PROVIDED, That attempts
to return to work in the first fourteen days following the injury shall
not serve to break the continuity of the period of disability if the
disability continues fourteen days after the injury occurs.
(((6))) (8) Should a worker suffer a temporary total disability and
should his or her employer at the time of the injury continue to pay
him or her the wages which he or she was earning at the time of such
injury, such injured worker shall not receive any payment provided in
subsection (1) of this section during the period his or her employer
shall so pay such wages: PROVIDED, That holiday pay, vacation pay,
sick leave, or other similar benefits shall not be deemed to be
payments by the employer for the purposes of this subsection.
(((7))) (9) In no event shall the monthly payments provided in this
section:
(a) Exceed the applicable percentage of the average monthly wage in
the state as computed under the provisions of RCW 51.08.018 as follows:
AFTER | PERCENTAGE | ||
June 30, 1993 | 105% | ||
June 30, 1994 | 110% | ||
June 30, 1995 | 115% | ||
June 30, 1996 | 120% |
Sec. 7 RCW 51.32.160 and 1995 c 253 s 2 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1)(a) If aggravation, diminution, or termination of disability
takes place, the director may, upon the application of the beneficiary,
made within seven years from the date the first closing order becomes
final, or at any time upon his or her own motion, readjust the rate of
compensation in accordance with the rules in this section provided for
the same, or in a proper case terminate the payment: PROVIDED, That
the director may, upon application of the worker made at any time,
provide proper and necessary medical and surgical services as
authorized under RCW 51.36.010. The department shall promptly mail a
copy of the application to the employer at the employer's last known
address as shown by the records of the department.
(b) "Closing order" as used in this section means an order based on
factors which include medical recommendation, advice, or examination.
(c) Applications for benefits where the claim has been closed
without medical recommendation, advice, or examination are not subject
to the seven year limitation of this section. The preceding sentence
shall not apply to any closing order issued prior to July 1, 1981.
First closing orders issued between July 1, 1981, and July 1, 1985,
shall, for the purposes of this section only, be deemed issued on July
1, 1985. The time limitation of this section shall be ten years in
claims involving loss of vision or function of the eyes.
(d) If an order denying an application to reopen filed on or after
July 1, 1988, is not issued within ninety days of receipt of such
application by the self-insured employer or the department, such
application shall be deemed granted. However, for good cause, the
department may extend the time for making the final determination on
the application for an additional sixty days.
(2) If a worker receiving ((a pension for)) permanent total
disability benefits returns to ((gainful)) any employment for wages or
earnings, the director ((may)) shall suspend ((or)), terminate ((the
rate of compensation established for the disability)), or reduce the
amount of compensation without producing medical evidence that shows
that a diminution of the disability has occurred. A reduction in the
amount of compensation must be in accordance with RCW 51.32.060(5)(b).
(3) No act done or ordered to be done by the director, or the
department prior to the signing and filing in the matter of a written
order for such readjustment shall be grounds for such readjustment.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 8 A new section is added to chapter 51.32 RCW
to read as follows:
Utilization, worker satisfaction and outcomes, and system and
employer costs related to RCW 51.32.060 and 51.32.080 will be studied
and a report issued to the appropriate legislative committees, the
department, and the workers' compensation advisory committee by
December 1, 2014. The workers' compensation advisory committee shall
recommend to the department any legislation needed to ensure the
appropriate utilization of disability benefits at reasonable cost to
the system.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 9 This act is necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the
state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect
July 1, 2011.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 10 Section 6 of this act expires July 1, 2016.