Can IL Reform Fix What's Not Working?

 Springfield, IL (WorkersCompensation.com) – It’s understandable that one research report can raise questions in another.

That is the case with a recent Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) report, according to the Vice President of Policy at Illinois Policy, a leading research organization in the state.

Discussing the Illinois Policy “Illinois Remains Uncompetitive After 2011 Workers’ Compensation Changes” report with WorkersCompensation.com, Michael Lucci said the true undertaking of the report was “to counter the false narrative that is out there,” that is coming from Democrats, who continue to claim things are fine when they may not be.

Lucci said by combining WCRI data and facts from the Oregon Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking study, Illinois Policy was trying to prove a point of contradiction. “What we are trying to get at in combining two reports is that in the first report from WCRI, they are saying you have some savings after 2011; however, you are still the most expensive state per claim of all the states we look at,” he said. “2011 didn’t get the job done and this is what it looks like for our businesses who (are) trying to compete with other states which is very difficult for them.”

Explaining Lucci’s noted contradiction, Evelyn Radeva, who is the author of the report “WCRI CompScope™ Benchmarks for Illinois, 17th Edition,” said different studies can be used to answer different questions concerning workers’ compensation costs.

“For example, the Oregon Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking study focuses on workers’ compensation insurance premium rates, ie the cost of workers’ compensation to employers. (The) National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) publishes data on average cost per worker, which combines the average cost per claim and the frequency of claims.”

“The unit of analysis in the CompScope™ benchmarking series is the individual workers’ compensation claim, so most results are reported on a per claim basis. Therefore, changes in claim frequency do not affect the measures included in our report,” she said.

In the Belleville News Democrat in February, Lucci pointed out how Illinois Trial Lawyers Association President Christopher Hurley was spreading false narrative. “His claim about profiteering is demonstrably false, and is an attempt to draw attention away from the real cost drivers that make Illinois home to the most expensive workers’ compensation system in the region. Illinois’ system drives manufacturers and workers out of the state while enriching personal injury attorneys like Hurley,” he wrote.

His thoughts haven not changed since the February correspondence.

“The trial bar strongly opposes any changes because this is how they make their money. Litigating all these workers’ comp claims is keeping the system very expensive. The trial bar is all in financing the Democrats, and the Illinois Democrats are the majority party in (legislation) right now and they don’t want to do anything on this because their bankers give them a lot of money to not change the system and keep it broken,” he added.

And Hurley feels otherwise.

“There is no data that drives this partisan argument they are making. This is simply a way to reward their special interests. When they bring some data to show all kinds of jobs are going to move into this state, because of a few cents of savings on workers’ compensation, then I will listen,” he said. “But (they) haven’t done that and the reason they haven’t done that is because it doesn’t exist. Businesses don’t make decisions based on that. You can ask an honest businessman and he will tell you that.”

But there is existing data, according to Lucci, who said the results from another WCRI report revealed Illinois was the leading state in trial attorneys and workers’ compensation claims. “We are the only state that (has) trial attorneys involved in more than 50 percent of all cases,” he said.  

Hurley said it is more about insurance carriers.

“You go back to 2011 and reforms were put in and since then costs are down considerably and to the extent that insurance companies have not reduced their premiums to employers, we do think that should be corrected. That is not a matter of taking away benefits from workers, it is a matter of requiring insurance companies to pass along the savings that the law has created for them,” Hurley said.

The attorney said taxpayers will have to bear the burden if insurance carriers don’t. “Driving down the cost to employers to have injured workers is going to get us more injured because the cheaper it is to have people injured, the more likely they are just going to let that happen and bear the cost,” he said.

Lucci said with only two more weeks left in the legislative session, he highly doubts anything will change until another serious reform takes place. “The 2011 reform just got the ball rolling, but we need to do real reforms to make it a better system for businesses and workers,” he said. “If we don’t do it as the Oregon study shows, then we are going to continue losing jobs and at the end of the day the injured workers are getting treated wrong in the system in Illinois (until) we fix it.”  

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