Commission Considers Rule Amendments
Posted: September, 2012; Updated: October, 2012
The Commission scheduled a public hearing on Friday, October 12, 2012, at 1:30 in the William Green Building to consider the following rule amendments:
- O.A.C. 4121-3-09: Conduct of hearings before the commission and its staff and district hearing officers
- Requires that an injured worker who provides a medical release to the employer provide a list of providers, authorized to release records, who have examined or treated the injured worker for conditions related to the claim. Provides that these records be treated as confidential records by the employer and its representatives. Provides a method for the injured worker to assert that the employer’s request for a list of medical providers is unreasonable, as well as the method for resolution of a dispute when the injured worker makes such an assertion.
- If an employer sends an injured worker for a medical exam the employer must notify the injured worker and the injured worker’s representative about the time and place of the exam. The employer must provide notice of the questions and information the employer submitted to the doctor, as well as the reason it requested an additional exam, when the injured worker requests such information.
- Authorized representatives are not permitted at Industrial Commission exams, or at exams or treatment conducted by the treating doctor. Injured workers may have a relative present at a Commission exam.
- Provides for publication of the docket and sending decisions through the mail or electronically.
- O.A.C. 4121-3-10: Lump sum payments for attorney’s fees for securing an award
Adds that when the Commission authorizes a lump sum payment of attorney’s fees in a state fund claim, the claim is referred to the BWC to determine both the biweekly rate reduction and the repayment schedule. - O.A.C. 4121-3-13: Disputed self-insuring employers’ claims
Raises the amount of time for a self-insured employer to respond to an injured worker’s request for compensation or benefits from 14 to 30 days. - O.A.C. 4121-3-15: Percentage of permanent partial disability
Adds language for providing reports to the injured worker, if unrepresented, or to the injured worker’s representative. - O.A.C. 4121-3-32: Temporary disability
Requires written job offers to identify the job, describe the job duties and identify the physical demands of the job. Provides for referral to the hearing administrator if the BWC medical exam indicates the injured worker is permanently prohibited from sustained remunerative employment for the hearing administrator to consider issuing a tentative order under the permanent total rule. - O.A.C. 4121-3-34: Permanent total disability
Permits consideration of a permanent total application when the claim file already contains the required medical evidence when the permanent total application is filed, even if the injured worker does not file the required medical evidence with the application.
The Commission determined that O.A.C. 4121-3-19: Form reference and O.A.C. 4121-15-10: Standards of conduct for adjudicators do not require amendment and made a minor change to O.A.C. 4121-3-26: Effect of rules.
Read the text of the proposed amendments on the Industrial Commission’s web site.
Information courtesy of the Ohio Workers’ Compensation Bulletin. Subscribe to the Ohio Workers’ Compensation Bulletin to keep informed about the Ohio workers’ compensation system.