Workers' Compensation - New Laws

Senate Bill 7
Determination and Payment of Workers’ Compensation Benefits
Coverage Under the Workers’ Compensation Law
Definition of “Injury”
Disputes and Appeals

Senate Bill 7 (“S.B. 7”) makes important changes to the workers’ compensation law.  These changes go into effect on June 30, 2006.  Below is a summary of some of the changes that may affect you.

Determination and Payment of Workers’ Compensation Benefits

S.B. 7 reduces the 40-week waiting period for the filing of an application for permanent partial disability compensation to 26 weeks.

S.B. 7 reduces the amount of time an injured worker may receive non-working wage loss compensation from 200 weeks to 52 weeks.

S.B. 7 allows any party to void a settlement agreement if the injured worker dies during the 30-day period after approval of the final settlement agreement.

S.B. 7 increases the maximum award an injured worker may receive for facial disfigurement from $5,000 to $10,000.

Under current law, an injured worker may receive “statutory” permanent partial disability compensation if the worker suffers a loss or “loss of use” of any one limb (e.g. the loss of an arm).  S.B. 7 takes away this right and requires that, in order to receive statutory permanent total disability compensation, the injured worker must sustain the loss or loss of use of two (2) body parts, e.g. both hands, or both arms, or both legs, or both eyes, or of any two thereof.

Coverage Under the Workers’ Compensation Law

S.B. 7 modifies the continuing jurisdiction of the Industrial Commission of Ohio (thereby modifying the “life” of the claim) from 6 years in the absence of payment of medical benefits and 10 years in the absence of payment of compensation to 5 years.

Definition of “Injury”

Under existing law, “injury” includes psychiatric conditions that have arisen from an injury or occupational disease.  S.B. 7 adds that “injury” is to include psychiatric conditions where the injured worker’s psychiatric conditions have arisen from sexual conduct in which the claimant was forced by threat of physical harm to engage or participate.

Under existing law, a condition that pre-existed a work-related accident may be allowed in a workers’ compensation claim if that pre-existing condition was aggravated.  Under existing law, that aggravation may be any degree or extent of aggravation, even if the aggravation is relatively “slight.”  S.B. 7 changes the law to provide that a condition that pre-existed an injury is not considered an “injury” unless that pre-existing condition is substantially aggravated by the injury.  Under S.B. 7, that substantial aggravation must be documented by objective diagnostic findings, objective clinical findings, or objective test results.  S.B. 7 states that while subjective complaints may be evidence of that substantial aggravation, subjective complaints without objective diagnostic findings, objective clinical findings, or objective test results are insufficient to substantiate a substantial aggravation.  Moreover, once that condition has returned to a level that would have existed without the injury, the claim essentially abates, since no further compensation or benefits are payable beyond that point.

Disputes and Appeals

S.B. 7 provides that an injured worker must obtain the employer’s consent to dismiss a complaint concerning an appeal of an Industrial Commission decision to the court of common pleas if the employer is the party that filed the court appeal.  This is a significant departure from current law, which allows an injured worker to dismiss a complaint based upon an employer’s court appeal.  A dismissal of the complaint usually benefits the injured worker by adding time within which the worker may draw compensation by up to one (1) year or more.

S.B. 7 provides that the provisions of the bill apply to claims arising on and after the bill’s effective date and specified pending claims.

Please visit the following link to view the complete statutory changes, http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=126_SB_0007

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