Report Title:

Workers' Compensation; Permanent Impairment Examiner

Description:

Requires employer-requested medical examinations for workers' compensation cases involving the determination of permanent impairment to be performed by a physician selected by mutual agreement of the parties, or if no agreement, by a physician appointed by the director of the department of labor and industrial relations.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

982

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to the determination of permanent impairment under the state's workers' compensation law.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that, in some cases, determining whether an injured employee has suffered a permanent disability that is compensable under the State's workers' compensation law has become a contentious matter. Furthermore, medical service providers are sometimes reluctant to participate in such an examination due to the contentious nature of the potential ensuing legal proceedings. The legislature believes that providing a process by which a qualified examiner is selected upon the mutual agreement of the employer and the injured employee would serve to alleviate the adversarial nature of the existing selection process and result in a more efficient and expedient resolution to determining an injured employee's health status.

The purpose of this Act is to require that when an examination is performed solely to determine permanent impairment pursuant to approved guidelines under the State's workers' compensation law, the determination shall be conducted by an impairment examiner who has been mutually agreed upon by the employer and employee.

SECTION 2. Chapter 386, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§386- Examination for determination of permanent impairment. (a) Any examination performed solely to determine permanent impairment pursuant to approved guidelines shall be conducted by an impairment examiner who has been mutually agreed upon by the employer and employee. In the event the parties are not able to mutually agree upon an examiner, the director shall appoint an impairment examiner from a list of qualified examiners categorized, and to the extent necessary, selected by specialty of practice. The director shall compile and maintain a list of impairment examiners and shall appoint examiners to conduct examinations in the order that they appear on the list.

(b) The cost of examinations shall be borne by the employer.

(c) The decision of an examiner under this section shall be final.

(d) The director shall adopt rules under chapter 91 to effectuate the purposes of this section."

SECTION 3. The department of labor and industrial relations shall submit a report to the legislature not later than twenty days prior to the convening of the 2006 regular session on its efforts to effectuate the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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