WC Insurance Rates Likely to Increase - But Not Just Because of Attorney's Fees
Driving the furor over pending legislative attempts to limit the amount of claimant's attorney's fees are concerns over the effects those fees will have on the premiums charged to employers to obtain workers' compensation insurance coverage. Those premiums have decreased on average by 60.5% since the 2003 legislative reforms were enacted, including an 18.6% decrease for 2009. But after the Florida Supreme Court issued its decision in Murray v. Mariner Health last October, the Office of Insurance Regulation approved a rate increase of 6.4% to account for the costs anticipated to result from the decision.
Yet there appears to be another factor which is just as likely to drive up the cost of insurance - the fees which hospitals are allowed to charge under the medical fee schedule for medical care provided to injured workers. So says Joe Paduda in this post to his Managed Care Matters blog, and so says Florida TaxWatch in this recently released report. The problem? According to Paduda, under a proposed amendment to Fla. Admin. Code R. 69L-7.501, hospitals will be allowed to charge 74% more than Medicare for surgeries and almost four times more than Medicare for outpatient services.
