> Local News > Top Headlines

Email: "Workers’ Comp Oversight Opposed"
*To:		<--TO Email REQUIRED!
*From:		<--FROM Email REQUIRED!

WHEELING — Businesses in West Virginia are concerned about a move to return oversight of workers’ compensation laws to the state Legislature.

The West Virginia Business and Industry Council presented its agenda to Northern Panhandle legislators Tuesday at the Wheeling Country Club. Included at the top was BIC’s opposition to proposed legislation crafted during an interim subcommittee meeting last week in Charleston.

The bill would create a legislative oversight committee that would be comprised of six members from the state Senate and six members from the House of Delegates. The committee’s duties would be to review all rules relating to workers’ compensation insurance filed by the state’s insurance commissioner, and to review all policies related to the administration of the now privatized workers’ compensation insurance.

The committee would have subpoena power, as well as other legal tools to do investigations.

State Sen. Andy McKenzie, R-Ohio, said he is on the subcommittee that crafted the legislation and was one of only two members who opposed it.

“I am surprised that no one — not even the governor — has spoken up about this,” McKenzie said. “It seems some want to undo what has been done with regard to workers’ compensation reforms.

“What insurance business is going to come into the state if they know we are going to keep moving the ball on workers’ compensation?” he continued. “If I were in the insurance business — even if I were an employer — I would be concerned.”

Delegate Randy Swartz-miller, D-Hancock, noted that the legislation crafted by the committee is only a “suggestion” for legislation that will be introduced during the legislative session in January.

“It has come out of the subcommittee with recommendations,” he noted. “It’s in the works. It has not materialized.”

Karen Price of WVBIC said the council also has sent a letter to state Attorney General Darrell McGraw regarding money his office has received through a court settlement, asking that the dollars be returned to the old workers’ compensation fund that existed prior to privatization.

In 2002, the state attorney general’s office won a $10 million lawsuit filed against a pharmaceutical company that overcharged three state agencies for prescription drugs — the Bureau of Employment Programs, the state Department of Health and Human Services and the Public Employees Insurance Agency. The Bureau of Employment Programs was the agency responsible for administration of the Workers’ Compensation Fund.

WVBIC is asking that $2.2 million received now be returned to the fund, money that already has been disbursed by the attorney general to various organizations in the state.

Price said the state attorney general’s office has not responded, and that officials there reportedly find the request “laughable.”

“My question is how much of the money has the attorney general already disbursed? And how do they get it back?” asked Delegate Tim Ennis, D-Brooke.

House Majority Leader Joe DeLong, D-Hancock, said the Legislature needed to be sensitive in placing restrictions on the money received by the attorney general.

“If we regulate them too much, we could tie their hands from their job, and the negotiations over money could drag on forever,” he said.

 

 

Subscribe to The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

Share: