H-2176              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 1682

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1988 Regular Session

By Representatives O'Brien, Patrick, R. King, Cole and Sayan

Read first time 1/22/88 and referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.

AN ACT Relating to industrial insurance benefits; and amending RCW 51.32.160.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

        Sec. 1.  Section 51.32.160, chapter 23, Laws of 1961 as last amended by section 4, chapter 59, Laws of 1986 and RCW 51.32.160 are each amended to read as follows:

          If aggravation, diminution, or termination of disability takes place or be discovered after the rate of compensation shall have been established or compensation terminated, in any case the director, through and by means of the division of industrial insurance, may, upon the application of the beneficiary, made within seven years after the establishment or termination of such compensation, or upon his own motion, readjust for further application 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 time limitation of this section shall be ten years in claims involving loss of vision or function of the eyes.

          If a worker receiving a pension for total disability returns to gainful employment for wages, the director may suspend or terminate the rate of compensation established for the disability without producing medical evidence that shows that a diminution of the disability has occurred.

If, as a result of the industrial injury, the worker is able to perform only special work not generally available and that work becomes unavailable to the worker for any reason, the director may order the commencement of permanent total disability payments without medical evidence that an aggravation of disability has occurred.

When a worker has been released to available work at the employer's request pursuant to the terms of RCW 51.32.090(4), the director may reopen the claim and take further action without medical evidence of an aggravation of disability:

(1) If the work comes to an end and the worker is unable in the judgment of his or her physician to return to his or her usual job, or to perform other available work; or

(2) If, once the worker returns to work under the terms of RCW 51.32.090(4), the employer assigns the worker to work other than the available work described, without the worker's written consent, or without prior review and approval by the worker's physician.

          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 ground for such readjustment.