BILL REQ. #:  H-2711.1 

Read first time 04/22/11.   Referred to Committee on Labor & Workforce Development.

     AN ACT Relating to implementing performance measures and improvement plans for the workers' compensation system, including the occupational safety and health program, to improve administration and efficiency; and adding a new section to chapter 51.04 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 51.04 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The department of labor and industries shall implement an improvement plan as provided in this section to continuously improve efficiency, effectiveness, integrity, and satisfaction in the state's workers' compensation system, including the occupational safety and health program, to best in the nation. Self-insured employers shall cooperate with the department and provide information necessary for the department to fully implement this section.
     (2) The department shall apply to the Washington state quality award or a similar Baldrige assessment organization such as the Baldrige national quality program for a full Baldrige assessment within ten months of the effective date of this section. To assure continued improvement to the system, the department shall apply for a full assessment every two years after the initial assessment, and every three years after reaching a score of sixty percent. The department shall commit and develop a plan to become a high performance, high integrity organization and reach a score of sixty percent in six years.
     (3) The department shall develop a statewide worker safety and workers' compensation performance improvement plan and a performance dashboard grading program within six months of the effective date of this section, and update the plan and performance grading program annually. The department shall develop online real time monitoring of all measures and shall link a plan with improvement strategies for each measurement with a target. The measures must at a minimum include in order of priority:
     (a) Claims reduction: Reduce the number of allowed claims by hours worked by four percent within two years and twenty percent within ten years, to include at a minimum, segmentation by occupation, industry, county, and permanent total disability benefits awarded;
     (b) Cost reduction: Reduce total workers' compensation system costs, including occupational safety and health costs, by four percent within two years and twenty percent within ten years to include at a minimum, segmentation by occupation, industry, county, permanent total disability benefits, and average medical cost per claim segmented by average total cost per claim with seven days or more of temporary total disability benefits;
     (c) Best practice implementation: Share and increase adoption of best practices by employers, workers, and providers;
     (d) Productivity improvement and waste reduction: Reduce system waste to zero and increase system productivity;
     (e) Employer safety plan and implementation:
     (i) All employer safety plans rated excellent; and
     (ii) Reduce to zero the rate of serious hazards identified per occupational safety and health consultation and citations for serious violations issued per inspection;
     (f) Performance management: Increase the Baldrige assessment to sixty percent and increase lean or lean six sigma implementation to one hundred percent as measured by the audit conducted under subsection (4) of this section;
     (g) Provider performance: Increase percentage of providers rated excellent within five years;
     (h) System integrity and ethics: Increase integrity and reduce fraud by employers, workers, providers, and others;
     (i) System satisfaction: Improve employer, worker, stakeholder, and provider satisfaction to best in the nation; and
     (j) Timeliness improvement: Decrease claims processing time, worker return-to-work time, and average duration of temporary total disability benefits.
     (4) The state auditor shall conduct an audit of the department's workers' compensation and occupational safety and health performance measures, strategic plan, government management and accountability performance, lean implementation plan, and other major processes every two years until certified as fully implemented, and then every five years.
     (5) The department shall report to the appropriate committees of the legislature annually regarding the requirements of this section. The report must include a summary of the most recent Baldrige assessment, a description of the most recent performance improvement plan and performance grading program, and the most recent annual performance scorecards.
     (6) The department shall recognize annually with the governor's workplace safety award the employers, by industry, that are the safest and the most improved with respect to safety and cost. The department shall also recognize employers that have adopted best practices.