WORKERS COMPENSATION PROBLEMS AIRED

In discussing aspects of workers compensation legislation pending before the Missouri General Assembly, there was some agreement to be found at a forum here Friday.

On this point, for instance, there was assent: a bill is needed this year.

Chris Wrigley, vice president of the Associated Industries of Missouri, which sponsored the forum, and state Rep. Larry Thomason, who is sponsoring a Missouri workers compensation bill, concurred on this point.

"We need a workers compensation bill this year," says Wrigley, who moderated a round table discussion on the bill at the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau.

Thomason (D-Kennett) agrees.

"This bill will be brought before legislators again next week," said Thomason, who attended Friday's session, along with Reps. Mary Kasten (R-Cape Girardeau), David Schwab (R-Jackson), Ollie Amick (D-Benton) and Dennis Ziegenhorn (D-Sikeston), chairman of the House Insurance Committee, which is involved in the workers comp bill. "We need help. We need this bill."

More than 60 Southeast Missouri employers or their representatives attended Friday's session. They expressed concerns regarding the state's compensation system.

Associated Industries, created in 1919 to work for the passage of a workers' compensation law (the first one passed in 1926), today works in several areas, including health care cost containment and environmental issues, actively testifying before the House and Senate committees on numerous pieces of legislation.

"Workers' compensation costs are going up," said Wrigley. "They have increased by 34 percent over the past 18 months, and more than 200 percent over the past eight years. It's time for some changes, and we have to make the legislature aware that Missouri businesses are united in their demand for a change."

The association has been conducting a series of round table meetings across the state for discussions about workers' comp problems.

"The momentum created by constructive, one-on-one employer-legislator contact will help us fuel our drive to introduced business-endorsed reforms before it is financially too late for many companies," said Wrigley.

"The workers comp bill is one of the major issues of this legislative session," said Ziegenhorn. "Increasing workers compensation costs are driving some employers out of business. We need employers to call other legislators, especially those in the St. Louis and Kansas City metro areas. We're seeing a lot of opposition from labor in those areas."

Thomason added, "We really need to do something this year. When it gets to the point of putting people out of work, it's time to do something."

One of the items in Thomason's bill calls for a "rate cap" that firms can charge for the workers comp insurance. Wrigley said his association is against a cap, but "we are in agreement with most of the other items in the bill, including one calling for quicker payment of claims. There have been cases where it takes nine months to pay a claim." Another item in the bill would attempt to establish some sort of fee schedule.

"That can different from area to area," said Wrigley, "or from doctor to doctor."

Amick, Schwab and Kasten also agreed that a change is needed.

"All of the legislators at this meeting support the measure," said Kasten. "But, employers need to contact other legislators."

One employer at Friday's meeting said his costs had gone from $40,000 to $100,000 in two years.

"We had one major accident," noted the employer. "But that employee is now able to work, we have a safety committee at the business and our claims over the past year have been only $3,000 compared to the $100,000 insurance bill we have to pay."

Another employer said his bill had more than doubled over the past year. Yet another added that even though there had been a decrease in the number of on-the-job injuries, the overall workers compensation costs had increased substantially.

Wrigley said these types of comments were typical of those shared by employers during sessions at Springfield, Joplin, Kansas City and St. Louis.

"What happens in some cases is that an employer is sometimes placed into a `risk pool' when a major on-the-job accidents occurs," said Wrigley. "The big problem here is that a company can go a year without a claim, but still remain in the risk pool.

"We want to see a bill which will help resolve some of the current problems and be fair and reasonable to everyone," said Wrigley.