The Kentucky state agency charged with administering the workers compensation program in the state is the Office of Workers Claims. In Kentucky there are currently 80K employers and over 1.7 million workers who are eligible for coverage under the Kentucky Workers Compensation Law. Funding costs for the program each year amount to nearly $750 million. The Office of Workers Claims is part of the Kentucky Department of Labor under the provisions of Chapter 342 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes.
The main purpose of the Kentucky Workers Compensation Act is to provide a replacement stream of income to injured workers to the level that it has been compromised by an on the job injury or by occupational disease. Additionally, the Act provides for timely and reasonable medical services to lead to recovery from the injury or disease. The Act also encourages the return of the injured worker to gainful employment via retraining or rehabilitation when the duties of the former job are no longer feasible.
The primary components and focus of the Kentucky Office of Workers Claims are to ensure timely delivery of legislatively mandated benefits by expeditiously processing claims. The needed mediation and resolution of disputes through a non adversarial procedure includes timely adjudication by a staff of administrative law judges.
In December of 1996 when Kentucky's General Assembly instituted comprehensive reforms to the workers compensation program, the system itself was in crisis. The cost of the program was 400% of the State corporate tax liability. The coal industry premiums had nearly doubled in the since 1993 and the number of awards given to workers had more than doubled in seven years, although it did not appear to be due to an increase in employment related injuries.
Some of the major elements in the compensation reform act included use of objective impairment descriptions based upon the Guide to Functional Impairment published by the American Medical Association; termination of benefit liability at age 65; strict definition of 'injury'; and creation of guaranty funds for self insured employers to allow for continued benefit payments if the employer went bankrupt or became insolvent.
Further tweaking of the system occurred in 2000 when benefit amounts for traumatic injury were increased, death benefits were increased and penalties on employers for safety lapses that created work injuries were stiffened. The position of arbitrators was eliminated and the Workers' Compensation Board was reinstated for administrative appeals before authorization of going to the appellate courts.
Again in 2002 the were additional refinements, mainly for the benefit of coal miners. Those miners who have contracted the occupational illness known as black lung (pneumonconiosis) are allowed to move into other types of employment by assistance with education and vocational retraining programs. If the affected miners are 57 years or older at the last instance of coal dust exposure, they could be entitled to indemnity payments of money.
The Workers Compensation Board itself is made up of three members appointed by the governor of Kentucky and approved by the state senate. Qualifications needed are those of an appellate court judge. Following the revisions to the Law described above, many new issues are cropping up that require significant new rulings. Approximately seventy percent of claims filed in Kentucky proceed through the system with no necessity for appeals or additional rulings.
In addition to the sweeping legislative changes in order to rein in out of control costs, other cost containment procedures are being implemented in the Kentucky system. Managed Care Plans, medical billing auditing and review and increased emphasis on vocational rehabilitation are just a few of the ways in which a strong workers compensation program can remain both helpful to employees and affordable to employers.
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