A committee working to specify Alaska’s worker’s compensation problems and identify possible solutions may soon release results.
Representative Kurt Olson (R-District 30) has worked on a variety of bills to improve Alaska’s standings over the last few legislative sessions, including House Bill 141 which was signed into law last summer.
Olson: “For years we’ve shipped seriously injured workers to Washington for specialty treatment. And typically, all across the country, the point of service is how your billed, so we were billed out of Washington rates for the treatments and they’ve been significantly lower than us all along. And then a few years ago, an independent audit firm suggested that they start re-billing at an Alaskan rates which had a significant impact on us because on some procedures it could be two to three hundred percent higher than it was in Washington.”
HB 141 stopped that.
Governor Bill Walker recently signed another bill into law which extended the working session for a panel comprised of union members, medical providers, employers, and insurance representatives through the end of the year in efforts to further reform Alaska’s workers comp.
For many years, Alaska was ranked number one in worker’s compensation rates, meaning the highest in the nation.
According to an Oregon ranking, Alaska improved four spots during 2014, reaching number five while averaging 145% of the states’ averages.
The panel is slated to release recommendations by the end of this year and Olson said he expects to see the impacts of House Bill 141 along with the recommendations on workers compensation rates starting in January of 2016.