Industrial Commission Completing Rules Overhaul

By Michael Whiteley, Eastern Bureau Chief The North Carolina Industrial Commission is rewriting all of its rules because of a little-noticed provision of workers' compensation reforms passed last year that subjected it for the first time to the state Administrative Procedures Act (APA).The change was included in House Bill 709 – a compromise between employers and workers' groups that capped some benefits and gave employers the right to obtain medical records and talk with treating physicians without permission from workers.Stakeholders said Friday the APA change was part of ...