TEXAS AND ILLINOIS REFORM WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SYSTEMS

Lawmakers in Texas and Illinois have approved measures to reform their workers’ compensation insurance markets, and governors Rick Perry and Rod Blagojevich are expected to sign the bills into law. The Texas bill has abolished the state’s workers’ compensation commission, replacing it with a single commissioner appointed by the governor. The overhaul also includes a 12% increase in the cap on weekly benefits for insured workers, and offers employers financial relief by allowing more companies to opt into the system. The Texas bill also allows the market to determine medical fees, doing away with a state fee schedule. Like the Texas bill, the Illinois reform boost benefits increasing compensation for lost wages, by an average of 7.5%. It also creates a new governmental agency to look into workers’ compensation fraud. On medical fees, Illinois is taking the opposite tack of Texas by establishing a fee schedule for physicians’ treatment of injuries.