HOUSE BILL REPORT

SB 5282

BYSenators Tanner, Warnke, Vognild, Smitherman, Deccio, Newhouse and Garrett

Changing procedures for suspension of workers' compensation for refusal to comply with medical examination or treatment.

House Committe on Commerce & Labor

Majority Report:  Do pass.  (11)

      Signed by Representatives Wang, Chair; Cole, Vice Chair; Fisch, Fisher, R. King, O'Brien, Patrick, Sanders, Sayan, C. Smith and Walker.

House Staff:Chris Cordes (786-7117)

AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE & LABOR APRIL 1, 1987

BACKGROUND:

If medical examination is necessary to resolve a medical issue in an industrial insurance case, the director of the Department of Labor and Industries has authority to select the physician who will conduct the examination.  The director has the discretion to charge the cost of the examination to the self-insured employer or to the medical aid fund as appropriate.  In practice, self-insured employers select the physician for most medical examinations they request.

SUMMARY:

A self-insured employer or the director of the Department of Labor and Industries may choose the physician who will examine a worker whenever an examination is deemed necessary to resolve a medical issue in an industrial insurance case.  The cost of this examination will be charged to the self-insurer or to the medical aid fund as appropriate.

Fiscal Note:      Not Requested.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    Senator Tanner, prime sponsor; and Melanie Stewart-Gerla, Washington Self-Insurers Association.

Neutral:  Brett Buckley, Department of Labor and Industries.

House Committee - Testified Against:      Ed Larson, Washington State Medical Association; Rick Brock, Western Pulp and Paper Workers; and Jeff Johnson,  Washington State Labor Council.

House Committee - Testimony For:    In practice, self-insurers select the physicians who will perform medical examinations of injured workers.  The bill would conform the statute to this practice.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      Self-insurers' authority should not be expanded.  Without the provision for oversight by the Department of Labor and Industries, the potential for abuse of the system exists.