Florida Subcommittee to Discuss Challenges in Workers' Compensation on Wednesday, 1/25

Tallahassee, FL (WorkersCompensation.com) - Florida attendees and panel members alike have been invited to a discussion of the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee on Wednesday, Jan. 25 from 3:30 - 6 p.m. in Tallahassee at the House Office Building in room 404 HOB. This is in response to several critical court cases that have upended important segments of the Florida workers' compensation system.

Deputy Chief Judge David Langham, who is expected to be a panel member, told WorkersCompensation.com in an email they intend to, "have a discussion with the others and the representatives regarding the challenges Florida workers’ compensation faces."

THE FOUR TOPICS AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED INCLUDE (BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO):

Reforms to attorney involvement, costs associated with reforms

• Revision of indemnity benefits values
• Benefit delivery timeliness and improvements
• Date revision for attachment of attorney's fees following benefits petition
• Other reforms to reach ideal level of attorney involvement for timely/proactive disability delivery and medical benefits to injured worker

Reforms to attorney's fees

• Revision to attorney's fee statute with reasonable consideration to the injured worker and attorney (Castellanos)
• Revision to attorney's fee statute for payment of injured worker attorney's fees through someone other than employer/carrier (Miles)
• Creation of a supplemental award to the injured worker paid by the carrier in addition to benefits rewarded
• Other revisions to attorney's fee statutes

Reforms to Temporary Indemnity Benefits

• Statute revision for a combined 260 weeks for temporary total disability (TTD) and temporary partial disability (TPD) (Westphal, Jones)
• Keep temporary benefits at 104 weeks, but discussion to take place about the unconstitutional benefits gap 

Injured worker satisfaction improvement with medical care

• Require employer/carrier/Division of Workers' Compensation to have a list of providers for the injured worker
• Require employer/carrier to adjust claims to medical treatment guidelines that are objective, mutually agreed upon or in line with statute
• Other options to increase satisfaction in injured workers

DISCUSSION WILL BE LED BY PANEL MEMBERS DESIGNATED TO REPRESENT THE FOLLOWING:

Carrier representatives

• Domestic Carrier: Tom Koval, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, FCCI Group
• Group Fund: Tom Stahl, Executive Director, Florida United Business Association

Employer representatives

• Larger Employers: Marc Salm, Vice President of Risk Management, Publix Supermarkets 
• Smaller Employers: William Shelby Johnson, Johnson Construction

Trial bar representative

• Kimberly Syfrett, Secretary: Florida Workers’ Advocates

Office of the Judges of Compensation Claims

• David Langham: Deputy Chief Judge

Health Care Provider representative

• Individual Providers: Fraser Cobbe, Executive Director, Florida Orthopedic Society

Readers may view the full panel agenda by clicking here, or download from the Attachments Box to the right of this article.

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