Arizona Official Wants Greater Protection for Injured Workers

Friday, January 15, 2016 | 0

A precinct committeeman in Mesa, Arizona is calling for increased financial benefits for the state’s injured workers and a tenfold increase in fines for insurance companies that wrongfully delay or deny benefits.

In an opinion column in the East Valley Tribune, Robert Hernandez McDonald Jr. said he wants to see changes to the Arizona workers’ compensation system, including restrictions on insurance companies' use of independent medical evaluations, which he said are used to find ways to deny benefits.

“These exams are anything but independent, and the claims adjuster will use this report as evidence to stop or deny a claim even though there (are) piles of evidence that dispute their hired doctor’s findings,” McDonald wrote.

Instead, in cases where a medical exam is needed to rule out fraud, the state Industrial Commission, rather than the insurance company, should select a doctor from an approved list, he said.

McDonald wants new laws that would ban the practice of rewarding adjustors for denying claims. Fines to insurers that improperly deny claims should be increased from the current $1,000 to $10,000, he said.  

And workers who have lost wages as a result of their injury should be paid at a rate at least as high as the minimum wage, McDonald said, and the state should increase the replacement pay rate from two-thirds of a workers’ pay to 85%.

McDonald, D-Mesa, is the elected precinct committeeman for Legislative District 26.