THE VALUED VOICE

The Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council (WCAC) met April 26 to begin discussions about possible recommended changes to Wisconsin’s worker’s compensation program. The WCAC includes five voting members representing organized labor, five voting members representing management and three non-voting representatives of the insurance industry.
 
Each legislative session, the WCAC provides the Legislature with an “agreed bill,” the council’s recommended changes to Wisconsin’s worker’s compensation program. The Legislature then considers the WCAC’s recommendations. Although modifications to the worker’s compensation program have been made outside of the WCAC process, including 2021 Wis. Act 29 signed by Gov. Tony Evers this week, a WCAC agreed bill has not been enacted into law since March 2016.
 
The WCAC meeting was dominated by a presentation from the Worker’s Compensation Research Institute (WCRI), a proponent of medical fee schedules in worker’s compensation programs. Recent WCRI reports have noted that Wisconsin’s worker’s compensation costs remain below WCRI’s median study state, and Wisconsin’s injured workers continue to be more satisfied with their medical care than in any other study state. In addition to recent WCRI reports, at the end of 2020, the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance reported a loss ratio of 55% for worker’s compensation insurers and announced the fifth consecutive year of reduced worker’s compensation insurance rates, about a 25% reduction in insurance premiums over the past five years.