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Texas Senate Hearing Worker's Compensation Reform Bill

By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com

Austin, TX –

It's not all peaches and cream on the floor of the Texas Senate as amendments to SB 5, the worker's compensation reform bill, are causing some heated exchanges.

Sen. Todd Staples (R-Palestine) brought the bill to the Senate floor today on second reading, noting that is has been 15 years since a worker's compensation revamp and it is only coming now because the current system is a "national embarrassment." He said the system is failing both employers and employees of the state, as well as "virtually all stakeholders."

Staples said medical costs for injured workers in Texas are among the highest in the nation, and one in three injured workers in the state never returns to work. He said Texas employers pay the third highest premiums in the country and some are no longer able to offer worker's comp at all. He said some doctors, too, are "fed up" with the system and have stopped treating injured workers.

Injured employers often can't find adequate medical care, said Staples, and his legislation thus creates a network system to serve injured workers. He said the networks will "be adequate and make a variety of services available." The Palestine Republican said today's worker's comp system says it has choices, but said that "has become fiction."

Staples said SB 5 allows injured workers to choose their own doctors and to change doctors within the network and enhances benefits for workers.

He said the worker's comp commission has not done a good job of administering the system and this bill will provide a "good and effective mechanism to shine the light of day on the entire process." The bill also gives the Texas Department of Insurance authority over premiums charged by worker's comp carriers.

Saying this bill is "one of the most critical we will address this session," Staples said members should not dwell on what happens if the bill passes, but what will happen if it doesn't. He said if the bill does not pass, the state will see more employers leaving Texas and fewer employees covered by worker's comp. He said only 76 percent are covered today, down from 84 percent three years ago. He said those employers who stay will continue to pay high costs and will not hire more employees and are not likely to stay in the state.

He said if the legislature does not act, if it fails to enact worker's comp reform, employers will leave the state, injured workers will return to work at an even lower rate and employers will face the highest rates in the nation.

"Today we can have a better system, one that we can be proud of," said Staples.

Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Lewisville) said results in the current system are "pitiful" because the worker's comp system looks nothing like traditional health care. "It's a dinosaur and it's time we bring it into the 21st Century," she said. She said concerns continue regarding injured workers who feel like they have a difficult time getting the care they need because of issues such as distance to travel for care and being limited by choice of physicians.

The Senate continues to hear floor amendments to the bill.