Focus Shifts to Interim, 2018 for Most Comp Bills

With a little more than two weeks left in the legislative session, the growing consensus is that most efforts to tweak Alaska’s workers’ compensation system will have to wait until next year. Measures that would revise the definition of independent contractor and increase penalties for employers who intentionally misclassify workers, implement evidence-based treatment guidelines and cap the duration of temporary disability benefits remain in the chamber in which they were introduced. A measure that would eliminate the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Commission is the only com...