While a Crain’s report shows the 2011 workers’ compensation reform package is helping to reduce costs for businesses, Senator Rose says more needs to be done to make Illinois competitive again.
The Workers’ Compensation Research Institute recently released a study that shows medical payments for workers’ compensation claims have fallen by nearly 15 percent, to an average of $14,513 per claim, down from 17,140 per claim in 2010-2011. Illinois’ average medical payment per claim, however, is still 19 percent higher than the 17 states that handle 60 percent of the nation’s workers’ compensation cases. The Illinois Policy Institute says that “medical costs have gone down, but other non-hospital costs remain higher than other states included in the study.”
Senate Republicans and Gov. Rauner continues to push for reforms that address causation in the workers’ compensation system. Reform proposals include changes that require an injury claim to be directly related to employment, and one that corrects the current definition of work-related travel.
Illinois still has the seventh-highest workers’ compensation costs in the country, and Gov. Rauner and Republicans continue to push for a reform package that will bring back manufacturing jobs and restore Illinois’ economy.