Bill Text: HI HB464 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Workers' Compensation; Claim Proceedings; Employer Report

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-12-01 - Carried over to 2012 Regular Session. [HB464 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-HB464-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO.  101

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2011

 

RE:   H.B. No. 464

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Labor & Public Employment and Economic Revitalization & Business, to which was referred H.B. No. 464 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WORKERS' COMPENSATION,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to protect the rights of injured employees by requiring any employer denying compensability or indicating that compensability is not accepted to submit a written report describing the employer's investigation to the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations (Director) and the claimant within thirty days, which period may not be extended.

 

     The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, ILWU Local 142, Hawaii Chapter - American Physical Therapy Association, Hawaii Injured Workers Alliance, WorkStar Injury Recovery Center, and several concerned individuals testified in support of this measure.  The Department of Human Resources Development, City and County of Honolulu Department of Human Resources, County of Hawaii Department of Human Resources, The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, Society for Human Resource Management – Hawaii Chapter, National Federation of Independent Business Hawaii, Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, and Hawaii Insurers Council opposed this bill.

 

     Your Committees find that the current procedures for evaluating claims for workers' compensation allow claims to go unanswered pending investigation for an unreasonable amount of time.  In addition, current law allows the Director to extend the time granted for an investigation. 

 

     As a result, injured workers go without the benefits they need for proper treatment, and suffer serious physical and psychological harm.  This measure is required to balance the time necessary for employers to investigate claims for workers' compensation with the need of injured workers for timely decisions.    

 

     Your Committees have amended this bill by changing the effective date to January 1, 2095.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor & Public Employment and Economic Revitalization & Business that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 464, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 464, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Labor & Public Employment and Economic Revitalization & Business,

 

 

____________________________ ANGUS L.K. MCKELVEY, Chair		____________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair