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Committee orders updated workers’ compensation fee schedule process amid dispute over methods
Summary
Representative Echols’ House Bill 117, directing the workers’ compensation division to develop an updated medical reimbursement schedule, was reported with amendments after extended testimony from providers, insurers, unions and the Louisiana Workforce Commission about methodology, access to care and timelines for implementation.
House Bill 117, carried by Representative Echols, returned to the House Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on April 24 with the sponsor’s pledge to press for a modern workers’ compensation medical reimbursement schedule. The committee reported the measure with amendments after lengthy testimony from diverse stakeholders including medical providers, unions, insurers and the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC).
Echols framed the bill as a response to a fee schedule that committee testimony said has not been comprehensively updated in roughly three decades. He urged a methodology that would make payments more predictable for employers and timely for providers, and said he had obtained claims data identifying a small share of very large charges that drive cost volatility.
The LWC’s secretary, Susie Shaw, and Brian Blackwood, assistant secretary overseeing workers’ compensation, testified that the department had convened stakeholder working groups since the fall and that draft language is pending in the Senate (Senate Bill 213). Shaw said the department seeks clearer statutory guidance — a “tool and a rule” — so it can adopt a schedule and a transparent methodology; she and Blackwood described multiple weekly and monthly stakeholder sessions since September.
Providers, however, were cautious or opposed. Ambulatory surgery centers and provider representatives warned that copying the payment approaches used in nearby states (where Medicare‑based multipliers are common) can produce low rates and access problems. Provider witnesses argued for predictable, timely payment and for procedural protections if payers withhold payment. Injured‑worker attorneys and union representatives pressed for stronger “teeth” — tacit approval rules and prompt payment enforcement — to avoid treatment delays that advocates said lengthen disability.
Representative Echols said he will keep offering the measure until the state has a workable, transparent schedule. The committee adopted technical amendments and reported the bill with amendments; members asked the department to continue the stakeholder process and to provide periodic updates to the legislature.
