Commissioner Touts Bipartisan Advisory Council Approach to Comp Laws

Friday, November 30, 2018 | 0

State legislatures would do themselves a favor by setting up bipartisan advisory councils to recommended solutions to thorny workers' compensation issues, Minnesota's commissioner of labor and industry said this week.

Commissioner Ken Peterson

Commissioner Ken Peterson, head of the department since 2011, wrote in a guest column in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the state's Workers' Compensation Advisory Council has produced several reforms that claimants and employer groups have agreed to. 

The council was formed by the Legislature in 1995 after years of pitched battles over workers' comp benefits. It's made up of six pro-labor members and six pro-business members, appointed by the Legislature and the governor. The head of the Minnesota AFL-CIO and the state's Chamber of Commerce have permanent seats on the council. 

By law, two-thirds of the council must agree before changes to the law can be recommended. Lawmakers now will rarely consider comp legislation if it hasn't been recommended by the council, said Peterson, who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton. 

Since 2011, the council has recommended four major changes. 

"None were revolutionary but each was a significant advance," Peterson wrote. The reforms included administrative procedures that were streamlined, cash benefits increased, and hospital inpatient and outpatient medical care charges controlled. 

"The Legislature passed each bill, either unanimously or near unanimously," he noted. "Scoring partisan points in committee or floor debate meant less to legislators than knowing that both business and labor backed a measure."

Minnesota now ranks 28th in the country, down from 22 in 2016, in workers' compensation premiums, according to a comparison done every two years by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services.

Other states, including Tennessee and Pennsylvania, also have advisory councils that recommend legislation and regulation. But those councils don't seem to carry the same clout with state officials.

In Tennessee, for example, a national rating bureau this fall recommended a 19.1% loss cost decrease, but the state's advisory council urged a more cautious 14% cut. In the end, the insurance commissioner approved a 19% decrease.