The following is an expanded version of the third item from my “Albany Insider” column from Monday’s print editions:
Assembly Democrats have come out strongly against proposed workers’ compensation rules that they believe are anti-worker.
“During the recent budget negotiations to create savings in the New York State Workers’ Compensation system, the Assembly majority emphasized that any savings to the system would only be acceptable as long as injured workers were not negatively impacted. We are disappointed to see that the proposed guidelines and proposed regulations do just that,” the Assembly Dems said in a letter to Workers Compensation Board Chairwoman Clarissa Rodriguez.
The letter, signed by 95 of the 106 Assembly Democrats, including Speaker Carl Heastie, says the board did not revise the existing guidelines “to reflect advances in modern medicine as required by law, but instead took the liberty to completely re-write and re-structure the guidelines without evidence that the changes are reflective of advances in modern medicine.”
The letter says it’s a priority of the Assembly majority to ensure that all injured workers are fairly compensated for workplace injuries and “are not subjected to arbitrary and unjustified benefit reductions.”
Assembly Dems are worried the new regs reduce the due process rights of claimants. Among the overall concerns are proposals the Assembly Democrats say would place new caps on impairment limits, a reducing of what’s considered the normal range of motion for extremities, adding earning capacity as a factor in determining the extent in which an injured worker suffered a loss, and limiting what evidence claimants can present to the board.
The Dems also expressed concerts the new guidelines and regulations as proposed would narrow the instances in which a claimant can request additional medical exams and authorizes that the board can deny claims if an independent medical examiner determines that he or she has not cooperate with a medical exam or failed to properly fill out forms.
They also complained the regulations were developed before the board reached out to all stakeholders, which was supposed to occur.
The Assembly Dems are calling on the board to withdraw the proposed regulations and guidelines completely and start from scratch to make sure there is proper public input and that any changes are tied to “advances in modern medicine that enhances healing and result in better outcomes.”
The rules shoudld also make sure that “no worker is unnecessarily harmed by arbitrary” changes.
“Thank you for your consideration in this matter,” the Assembly Democrats wrote in the letter. “We look forward to working with you to ensure that injured workers can count on the workers’ compensation system to provide just and timely compensation when a tragic workplace injury occurs.”
Board spokeswoman Melissa Stewart said that “we received this letter among many other comments on the draft regulations, all of which are under review.”
The mainline state Senate Democrats recently sent a letter to the board expressing the same concerns as their Assembly counterparts that the proposed changes would weaken protections for workers injured on the job. The letter urged the board to balance the interests of businesses and the employees who work for them.
