Workers comp law cuts medical fees

During debate last week on this year's workers comp bill, House sponsor Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Tulsa, said he agreed that the changes implemented over the past few years should be given a chance to work.

Sullivan, who has carried virtually all of the major workers comp legislation in the House for the past several years, said it is time to observe the results and "collect data."

This year's version is aimed primarily at reducing medical costs. Provisions include a 5 percent reduction in the overall fee schedule.

"We increased some of the floor (basic) fees," Sullivan said. "If we're going to increase the bottom, guess where that 5 percent has to come from. The upper end of the schedule."

Some doctors are not happy with the changes. Besides the lower fee schedule, the new law will require treating physicians to disclose their ownership in businesses that provide medical equipment and supplies to their patients and to abide by limits on how much they can charge for those items.

The new law also makes it more difficult for injured workers to choose their own doctors and limits the time frame in which they can file a claim.

A frequent critic of the recent workers comp reform laws, Rep. Richard Morrissette, D-Oklahoma City, said the bill is the best of the bunch but still not good for workers.

"In workers comp, the goal should be to protect the injured worker," he said.

Instead, Morrissette said, Oklahoma's system is being turned into protection for employers.

One group happy about the direction of workers comp reform is the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce, which issued a statement upon passage of the main package, Senate Bill 878, on Wednesday.

"This legislation is a positive step toward bringing workers compensation costs down for our Oklahoma business community, all while protecting the injured worker," said Chamber President Fred Morgan, a former Republican legislator. "We must go beyond rewriting our existing laws and work toward developing a 21st-century approach to protecting our workers at the lowest possible cost."

The Chamber and other groups have long contended that Oklahoma's workers' compensation costs are much higher than surrounding states, which they have tended to blame on attorneys and overly sympathetic workers comp court judges.

Among the recent reforms is shifting final approval of workers comp judges from the governor to the state Senate.

Tulsa Workers Compensation Attorney

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