This bill (A 6887) gives workers with compensation claims the right to choose their own pharmacy for prescribed medications when their employer or insurance company fails to authorize the medication within 72 hours for specific reasons - such as refusal to pay, delays in reauthorization due to missing medical reports, or disputes over treatment guidelines. It directly affects injured workers who face medication access barriers through the employer's contracted pharmacy network. Pharmacies dispensing medications under this provision must follow state fee schedules, medical treatment guidelines, and formulary rules, and will be paid within 45 days of approval. The law aims to prevent medication delays while ensuring cost accountability for both workers and insurers.
This bill amends workers' compensation law to limit liens on third-party recovery funds. It specifies that insurance funds or employers can only claim a lien for lost wages or medical expenses paid to injured workers, not other damages. The law requires courts to equitably apportion legal fees between the worker and the lienholder when a third-party settlement or judgment is secured. This applies to workers who pursue legal action against a negligent third party while receiving workers' compensation benefits.
Includes Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases as occupational diseases for purposes of workers' compensation; clarifies that disability includes disability caused by Lyme disease or other tick-borne diseases; requires insurance coverage of long term medical care for Lyme disease and other tick borne diseases.
Simplifies the procedure by which injured workers obtain treatment for injuries covered by the workers' compensation law; provides that the list of pre-authorized procedures is to be used only as a list of treatment that does not require insurance carrier approval.
Relates to eligibility for classification as permanent total disability; includes inability to perform the full range of sedentary work or approval for federal social security disability benefits as a result of a compensable accident or occupational disease as constituting permanent total disability.
Allows certain claimants to be reclassified to permanent total disability or total industrial disability due to extreme hardship; defines extreme hardship.
This bill exempts up to $10,200 of unemployment compensation benefits from state income tax for residents. It directly affects state residents who receive unemployment benefits by reducing their taxable income. The key provision amends the tax law to create a new exemption for these benefits, effective for tax years starting January 1, 2024. This change applies automatically to eligible recipients without requiring additional applications.
Requires the workers' compensation board to submit a supplemental report every year, including recommendations to modernize such board and certain data regarding claims made and decisions rendered on such claims.
Enacts the "Joseph Fletcher act"; permits certain claims by essential employees for compensation based on death due to COVID-19 which were previously denied or not timely filed.
Provides that the weekly benefit which the disabled employee is entitled to receive for disability commencing: on or after January first, two thousand twenty-eight shall be fifty percent of the employee's average weekly wage but shall not exceed fifty percent of the state average weekly wage; on or after January first, two thousand twenty-nine shall be fifty-five percent of the employee's average weekly wage but shall not exceed fifty-five percent of the state average weekly wage; on or after January first, two thousand thirty shall be sixty percent of the employee's weekly average wage but shall not exceed sixty percent of the state average weekly wage; and on or after January first of each succeeding year, shall be sixty-seven percent of the employee's average weekly wage but shall not exceed sixty-seven percent of the state average weekly wage.
