Key language -from the just-released report is below… I’ll be live-tweeting at @Paduda and live-blogging here during the broadcast from the Dept of Labor this morning.
Policy areas that deserve exploration include [emphasis added]:
• Whether to increase the federal role in oversight of workers’ compensation programs, including the appointment of a new National Commission and the establishment of standards that would trigger increased federal oversight if workers’ compensation programs fail to meet those standards.
• How to strengthen the linkage of workers’ compensation with injury and illness prevention, including by facilitating data sharing among state compensation systems, insurance carriers, state and federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and state health departments.
• Whether to develop programs that adhere to evidence-based standards that would assist employers, injured workers, and insurers in addressing the long-term management of workers’ disabilities to improve injured workers’ likelihood of continuing their productive working lives.
• Whether to update the coordination of SSDI and Medicare benefits with workers’ compensation, in order to ensure, to the extent possible, that costs associated with work-caused injuries and illnesses are not transferred to social insurance programs.
I don’t think federal oversight /minimum standards is the answer, tends to become a ceiling rather than a floor. If we are concerned about WC impact on lives and its business and social costs we need to start with injury/illness prevention – perhaps learn from what the Germans are doing
If we stop maiming our workers costs will decrease ( for WC and SSDI, too)