Over the past several months, we have examined proposals the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry’s workers’ compensation executive committee has made for various legislative changes for the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act. We have thus far looked at prescription drugs, utilization reviews and managed care. As you may have noticed, many of the proposed reforms tout “lessening the administrative burdens”; however, upon closer inspection, they pave the way for more red tape and delay. The proposals ultimately serve the purpose of gaining more control over the injured worker to save the carriers’ bottom lines at the expense of a person’s well-being.
The next idea, as proposed by the chamber, is benignly titled “Eliminating Administrative Burdens.” The first change the chamber proposes is to consolidate or eliminate extraneous forms under the guise of “improving efficiency.”
