Employee-Friendly WC Bill Introduced in Florida Senate
On 2/29/2008, Senator Steven R. Wise, a Republican from Northeast Florida, introduced SB 2548 in the Florida Senate. If passed at the upcoming legislative session set to begin on March 4, this bill would provide significant increases in the workers' compensation benefits payable to injured workers. Specifically, the bill:
(1) Eliminates the “one-time” change-of-physician provision of §440.13(2)(f). See §1, p. 3-4.
(2) Provides that “the employee may select the change of physician and may select any physician licensed to practice in this state who is a certified health care provider unless the medical care is being provided through a managed care arrangement. If the medical care is being provided through a managed care arrangement, the employee may select any physician in the managed care network as the change of physician.” See §1, p. 4.
(3) Eliminates “authorized qualified rehabilitation providers” from the list of those persons entitled to obtain the employee’s medical records from and engage in ex parte discussions with the employee’s authorized health care providers. See §1, p. 5.
(4) Eliminates the requirement that claimants pay for the cost of their own independent medical examinations. See §1, p. 6.
(5) Eliminates expert medical advisors under §440.13(9). See §1, pp. 7-10.
(6) Eliminates the requirement of “objective” medical findings for psychiatric impairments. See §2, p. 22.
(7) Eliminates the 1% limitation on psychiatric impairments. See §2, p. 22.
(8) Provides for an award of “supplemental benefits” in addition to permanent impairment benefits in cases where the employee’s permanent impairment rating is 15% or more and the employee has not returned to work earning at least 80% of his pre-injury wage. If the employee is not eligible for an award of supplemental benefits as of the final week of payment of impairment benefits because he is earning at least 80% of his pre-injury wage, he may become eligible for such benefits within 1 year after the impairment benefits end if he is otherwise eligible and his decrease in earnings is the “direct result” of his impairment. The combination of temporary total, temporary partial, impairment income, and supplemental benefits may not exceed 401 weeks (7.71 years). See §2, pp. 22-25.
(9) Provides that temporary compensation benefits and medical benefits are not subject to apportionment. See §2, p. 26.
(10) Provides that if a permanent impairment is the result of a merger with a pre-existing impairment, impairment benefits are payable for the total impairment found to result, excluding the degree of impairment existing at the time of the accident. See §2, p. 26.
(11) Provides that costs for a frivolous proceeding may be assessed against a party or an attorney. See §4, p. 28.
(12) Eliminates the requirement of §440.32 that a copy of any order assessing a penalty against an attorney be forwarded to a bar grievance committee. See §4, pp. 28-29.
(13) Provides that if a “guideline fee” to a successful claimant’s attorney results in a fee less than that paid by the employer/carrier to its own attorney to defend the claim, then “the fee due to the claimant’s attorney shall be equal to the fee paid to the attorney for the employer or carrier or, in the alternative, a reasonable fee as determined by the Judge of Compensation Claims.” See §5, p. 30.
(14) Provides that “rehabilitation TTD” benefits are payable in excess of the 104-week limitation otherwise provided for temporary compensation. See §6, p. 30.
(15) Provides that employee leasing companies must notify each leased employee that the leasing company will provide workers’ compensation coverage and that such coverage will not expire until at least 30 days after notice of cancellation of coverage has been sent to the employee. See §7, p. 32. (Also see SB 454 and HB 239 which I wrote about here).
(16) Provides that the amendment will take effect on 7/1/2008. See § 9, p. 33.
