Legislative Update - Workers' Compensation

WC Settlement Training Mannual 2012

HB 123 - BWC Biennial Budget

OAJ Action: This legislation is being reviewed by leaders in OAJ’s Workers’ Comp Section and Regional Representatives.

March 18, 2011: On March 15 Phil Fulton testified before the House Insurance Committee on behalf of the Ohio Association of Claimants Counsel to advocate that a provision be removed from the bill that requires the BWC administrator to process medical claims within one year from when service is rendered. The deadline for submission is currently two years. He argued the provision would handcuff the administrator, since the deadline for submission is now set by rule, and that it would handicap Ohio’s ability to negotiate a resolution to the Medicare set-aside issue with the CMS. The BWC Administrator Steve Buehrer spoke in support of the provision and opposed removing it from the bill. By a party-line vote, the committee defeated a Democrat amendment to remove the one-year submission language as Mr. Fulton advocated. 

OAJ Action: (Updated April 8, 2011) The Senate Insurance, Commerce & Labor Committee adopted an amendment to the bill that a) allows the Administrator or the BWC Board to adopt a rule to change the one-year deadline for the submission of medical bills, and b) exempts from the one-year medical bill submission deadline requests by Medicare and Medicaid for set asides. OAJ still believes the deadline to submit medical bills should remain at two years in order to be consistent with the two-year statute of limitations to submit a claim. 

HB 124 - Industrial Commission Biennial Budget

OAJ Action: This legislation is being reviewed by leaders in OAJ’s Workers’ Comp Section and Regional Representatives.

HB 153 – Biennial State Budget: state appropriations beginning July 1, 2011 and ending June 30, 2013