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Senate committee advances multiple workers' compensation bills after hours of debate
Summary
The committee heard hours of testimony for a cluster of workers' compensation bills addressing physician choice, benefit caps, permanent-disability calculations and attorney fees; several measures passed while others were deferred or amended.
The Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee spent a significant portion of a multi-hour meeting considering a suite of workers' compensation bills that would change how injured workers access physicians, the state's maximum compensation cap, permanent-disability calculations and attorney-fee rules.
Sponsor Sen. Jonathan Peyton described a package of bills intended to alter the current system, including a measure to allow injured workers a limited change of specialist (Senate Bill 288), a bill to raise the maximum insurable wage used to calculate weekly compensation (Senate Bill 285), and related bills addressing how permanent disability is calculated (Senate Bill 286) and attorney fees for awarded medical benefits (Senate Bill 287).
Key outcomes and debate: - Senate Bill 288 (specialist change): Sponsor said the bill creates a hybrid model whereby an injured worker may change a specialist no more than once per year, provided the specialist is inside the workers' comp network and…
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