The Voucher System Hearings - A Perspective

Saturday, July 31, 2004 | 0

By JoAnne Ruchinskas and Tom Gilmore

The Public Hearings held in San Francisco July 8, 2004 to take public comments on the proposed regulations for the Carve Outs and the Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit were minimally attended. Other than one of the DWC attorneys who chaired the meeting, there were no other members of DWC administration in attendance. The new Administrative Director, Andrea Hoch, was also unable to attend. While members from insurance, attorney, and counseling groups were present, and did provide testimony, the entire proceeding that was set for 7 hours was concluded in one hour.

Tom Gilmore and JoAnne Ruchinskas did speak on behalf of the California Association of Rehabilitation and Reemployment Professionals (CARRP) and highlighted some of CARRP's many concerns. The full testimony was also submitted in writing. The concerns expressed on behalf of CARRP were fourfold:

1. If the intent of the voucher is to improve outcomes, then a transparent process should be in place to measure the efficacy of the voucher system. A number of professionals from all sides of the workers comp system have voiced concerns about the vouchers' eventual effectiveness in saving money, improving return to work results, and making California more business friendly. Without system to measure results we won't possibly know what is working and not working, what the net gain or loss is, and what to do to improve the process. Therefore, the regulations must be amended to specify what processes are to be used to measure outcomes.

2. If at all possible, the voucher should be made available to the injured worker while they are still TTD or they may not be able to use the voucher at all. Tom pointed out that a single parent with no other income than PD would be hard pressed to go to school without gas money, a subsistence allowance, and childcare. If 70%-90% of the vouchers are never used, then we will see other problems arising in California that could dwarf the concerns we've had about workers compensation (costs, efficacy, etc.). Problems could include ADA suits, FEHA suits, drastic increases in other social programs, and human misery beyond acceptable levels.

3. The voucher should not be able to be settled. Voucher settlement represents a potential conflict of interest for the attorneys and insurance companies in their treatment of injured workers. It is, therefore, a detriment to injured workers to make the voucher a bargaining chip in the settlement process.

4. The list of qualified Vocational Return to Work Counselors (VRTWC's - pronounced "ver-twicks") must be made readily available to injured workers. JoAnne stated that an "online list" is not acceptable as it is not readily available to people without computers, i.e., many injured workers. Neither is a list of IVE's acceptable as this list excludes many CARRP members who are more than qualified under parameters set forth in SB 899 and artificially limits the pool of counselors to which injured workers can consult. The same is true of the list of schools.

There has been discussion among many parties in the system of what the actual intent of this "benefit" was. If it is truly a benefit to the injured employee, then why establish a system that is doomed to fail in its present form? As Tom testified, "...you have created a system which is a disincentive to the injured worker, applicant attorneys, and insurance companies...".

Insurers will agree that on the surface this voucher was a nice inclusion for the worker unable to return to modified/alternative work. However, they have strict (some say impossible) time lines to follow, conflicting time lines between the statute and the regulations, and severe penalties in the audit regulations for non-compliance.

The attorneys know their clients need assistance in getting back to work, and have expressed their collective frustration with what will actually be available to the injured employee, if they can survive the wait to get the voucher.

The CARRP Board is tackling the issue of getting information on the voucher, the availability of counselors (aka VRTWC's), and a list of schools, to injured employees in their geographic area. This will be a massive undertaking, but if this voucher process is all the 2004 and beyond injured employee has to rely on to get assistance in returning to work, then CARRP has expressed a commitment to take the lead and work to make the unmanageable work as best possible until other remedies can be sought.

In the meantime, these issues, and others, will be addressed at the CARRP annual conference from October 15-17 in San Francisco at the Radisson Miyako. Visit CARRP's website at www.carrp.org for the calendar of events.

Thomas Gilmore is President, and JoAnne Ruchinskas is Vice President of Education, CARRP, "Keeping California Working since 1975."

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The views and opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of CARRP, workcompcentral.com, its editors or management.