Work comp reform producing good news
AS workers’ compensation attorneys continue their legal challenges to a state law that shifted Oklahoma to an administrative model, the man who is head of the system is glad to share the positive results it has produced.
The Republican-controlled Legislature voted in 2013 to do away with the longstanding court-centered workers’ comp system. The new law establishing the Workers’ Compensation Commission took effect Feb. 1, 2104.
The ensuing 15 months were bumpy, to put it lightly, as the commission failed to regularly follow the state’s Open Meetings Act and struggled with internal structural problems. In April 2015, two of the three commissioners resigned.
Mark Liotta joined the commission at that time, appointed by Gov. Mary Fallin. Liotta is a former member of the Legislature who also worked from the ground up at a Tulsa construction company, and has experience in the Army National Guard and in Tulsa County government.
He has worked to improve various flaws within the WCC — regular staff meetings are now the norm, for example, after being nonexistent when he arrived. These meetings help to improve communication among divisions. The commission also now has an organizational chart — a slight change, but needed.
The change in Oklahoma law was needed, too. Legal challenges from workers’ comp attorneys have resulted in several pieces of the law being declared unconstitutional, most notably language rejected by the state Supreme Court last year that allowed employers to opt out of the new law.
But Liotta notes that the original statute “is substantially still in place,” and it’s working effectively. For example:
• Since 2013, the cost of premiums has fallen by 30 percent. That is encouraging news for employers, who before this reform had seen a steady rise in premiums even as the number of claims by injured workers declined.
• From 2008-2012, Oklahoma’s net five-year premium level ranked worst in the country with a 19.8 percent increase, according to the National Council on Compensation Insurance. From 2012-16, Oklahoma ranked No. 1 nationally with a 34.3 percent decrease in net five-year premium rates.
• Since 2014, the number of cases handled without going to trial has continued to increase, while the number of cases that have been tried during the same time has grown only slightly.
• In 2012, the state’s Workers’ Compensation Court saw roughly 14,000 claims filed. In that court, claims often can take up to two years to be resolved, Liotta said. In 2016, there were about 6,300 claims filed at the Workers’ Compensation Commission; those generally are handled in six to nine months.
Liotta, who was named commission chairman in August, acknowledges that lawmakers probably cut benefits too dramatically in some areas with their 2013 bill, and that some correction is likely needed. Meantime, his agency continues to find its footing and is performing well after a rough first year.
“If you look at all the measures, they’re all headed in the right direction,” he says. “The system is working the right way, and the commission itself and my employees, we’re righted and heading in the right direction.” Here’s to continued progress in all areas.