Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor
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Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor |
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The Commission held two public hearings, one in Chicago and one in Springfield, at which individuals could comment on the proposed rules. The deadline to submit written comments was April 21, 2008. We are now analyzing the comments and preparing responses to them, which we will submit to the Joint Committee of Administrative Rules and post online. There will then be another 45-day comment period. We will announce developments as they occur. revised 4/23/08; posted 3/7/08 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1. | HB928 (PA 95-316, effective 1/1/08) creates a rebuttable presumption that a condition caused by a bloodborne pathogen, lung or respiratory disease, heart or vascular disease, hypertension, tuberculosis, cancer, hernia, or hearing loss experienced by a firefighter, emergency medical technician, or paramedic arose out of and in the course of employment and is causally connected to the employment, if the person was employed as a firefighter, EMT, or paramedic for 5 years or more at the time he or she files an application. |
| 2. | HB1795 (PA 95-26, effective 1/1/08) directs the Departments of Labor, Employment Security, and Revenue, Comptroller's Office, and the IWCC to cooperate under the Employee Classification Act by sharing information concerning any suspected misclassification, by an employer or entity, of employees as independent contractors. |
| 3. | SB223 (PA 95-331, effective 8/21/07) is a nonsubstantive measure that corrects obsolete cross-references and technical errors. |
posted 8/31/07
In FY07,
the IWCC collected $1.2 million in fines from 52 uninsured employers with
nearly 900 workers. The money was deposited into the Injured Workers Benefit
Fund, which was created by the 2005 bipartisan reform legislation. The
fund then will pay benefits to injured workers whose uninsured employers
failed to pay.
To receive payment from the IWBF, injured workers of uninsured employers
who received a final award during FY07 must send a written notice within
90 days to the IWBF. Click here
for more information.
posted 7/13/07
Commissioners issued over 1,600 decisions in FY07, representing a 50% increase from the prior year. Arbitrators issued 3,700 decisions.
posted 7/13/07
The Division of Insurance has hired four additional workers' compensation fraud investigators. Three are located in the Chicago metropolitan area and one is located in Springfield. All the investigators will operate statewide.
If you would like to report a suspected case of workers' compensation fraud, contact Francis "Buzz" Walsh in the Workers' Compensation Investigative Unit at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation/Division of Insurance (francis.walsh@illinois.gov; toll-free 877/923-8648; 320 W. Washington St., Springfield, IL 62786).
posted 4/20/07
Governor Blagojevich has sent a letter to the Social Security Commissioner requesting that additional funds and staff be dedicated to the timely approval of Medicare set-aside agreements in order to reduce the backlog of workers' compensation cases awaiting settlement in Illinois and nationwide.
In addition, to address the administrative problems parties face while awaiting set-aside approval, the Chairman issued a memo directing cases be continued during the approval period. Click here to view a copy of the Governor's letter and Chairman's memo.
posted 10/3/06
Since 2005, when arbitrators began a special review of red-line cases--those cases pending for more than three years--their number has been reduced by 9%. All parties are encouraged to continue to work towards identifying and bringing to conclusion those claims that are ripe to be resolved.
Click here to read Chairman Ruth's 5/2/05 memo to arbitrators, outlining the way red-line cases should be scrutinized.
revised 6/19/07
Beginning with the December 2004 status calls, the Commission changed the continuance cycle from three months to two months, pursuant to Section 7020.60(a) of the Commission rules. Click here to read Chairman Ruth's memo explaining the switch from three-month to two-month continuance cycles.
posted 10/27/04
Chairman Ruth has established the following policies for arbitration:
| 1. | Parties present and ready for trial shall be given priority over parties either not ready or those requesting pre-trials. |
| 2. | Parties will not be required by arbitrators to submit to pre-trials. |
| 3. | Parties who request a pre-trial will be given an opportunity for a pre-trial after trials have concluded. |
| 4. | All additional rules or requirements of arbitrators, as a condition to obtaining a trial, that are inconsistent with the mandate of Section 16 that procedures be simple and summary, shall be immediately discontinued. |
| 5. | All arbitrators will grant trials pursuant to Section 19(b) of the Act on any case where the petitioner is claiming past or current benefits remain unpaid, regardless of the petitioner's current work status. This includes past or future medical, TTD, and maintenance (for example, if a petitioner has returned to work but TTD or medical remains unpaid, he or she has a right to a trial pursuant to Section 19(b)). |
| 6. | All arbitrators at all downstate venues will begin conducting trials on each and every trial date listed on their schedule if requested to do so by the parties. Furthermore, the parties will not be required to wait through each day of the call until they are reached and may return for trial on the date they have chosen. |
We are continually trying to improve our website. Here's a list of recent improvements.
| 1. |
The Commission has created a group email news service. Over 1,000 people have signed up. If you would like to receive IWCC news at the same time that the news items are posted to the website, send your email address to the web manager. Type "IWCC email news" in the subject line. When we receive a request to be added to the list, we send back a confirmation. Some of these replies have come back as undeliverable. Some of the group emails have also been rejected. If you asked to be placed on the list and did not receive a confirmation or a subsequent group email, you may want to check your settings for your email. You may be rejecting our emails as spam. The emails will be sent from susan.piha@illinois.gov. |
| 2. | Users may now search online for an employer's w.c. insurance carrier, thanks to information provided by the National Council on Compensation Insurance. The link appears in the right-hand column on our home page, or you may click here. |
| 3. |
Users can now check the status of open and closed workers' compensation cases online. This page is receiving over 60,000 hits each month. We strongly encourage you to check case status online: the online information is more readily available to you, and our Information staff will then be free to give more time to callers with substantive questions. Contact information for the attorneys is included, as are the status call dates, hearing location, and accident date. To protect claimants' privacy, we did not include any personal information on the page. Because we update our database at night, the case screen is available Monday through Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. We have added the link on the upper right-hand side of our home page, or you can click here. |
| 4. |
Chicago trial dates are now posted roughly one hour after a Chicago status call ends. The online list is the official list of Chicago trial dates that were assigned at the status call. The arbitrator no longer manually stamps documents at the call. If you wish to reschedule a trial, please contact the arbitrator to whom the case is assigned. Since this change took effect in February 2005, Commission staff have been instructed to refer callers with questions about trial dates to the website. |
| 5. | You may now fill out and print the pdf forms using the Adobe Reader. |
Please let us know if you have any suggestions for the website. It exists to serve you, so tell us how it can be better.
revised 12/4/07
Mail call!
Each year, the Commission receives hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail. We have only two Mailroom employees to open, date-stamp, sort, and deliver them. Please help us with this task by taking the following steps:
When filing a new claim, you must send three copies of the IC1 claim form. If you enclose a fourth copy and a self-addressed, stamped envelope, we will automatically send you a date-stamped copy. (You don't need to send a letter.) Please put the SASE in front of the documents.
Please submit only one copy of the Attorney Representation Agreement for each case. If you provide the Proof of Service on a separate page, you need provide only one copy, as well.
If you are sending a lot of papers, please send them flat, not folded, in one large manila envelope. Clip documents for each case separately. Make sure all the documents face the same way. And don't fold each page separately! These steps will save a lot of time in opening and unfolding the mail.
If you intend to send a document to a specific person, write his or her name on the envelope. Or write the section--Information, Docket, etc.
Mail accident reports to 701 S. 2nd St., Springfield, IL 62701. Please don't ask us to return date-stamped copies of accident reports. If you submit a lot of reports, please send them through a paperless method. (About half of accident reports now come in electronically.) That will save us a great deal of data entry work as well as mail processing time. For details, please contact Bennie Horton (312/814-6518).
Remember, the quicker our Mailroom staff can process the incoming mail, the quicker they can take care of the outgoing mail, which may contain something you need. Your cooperation will help us serve you better.
Think "Safety First" at work and at home
Which would you guess is higher: the rate of accidental injury at home or at work?
Believe it or not, home is much more dangerous. According to the National Safety Council, 9 out of 10 deaths and two-thirds of disabling injuries suffered by workers occurred while off the job.
Source: National Safety Council, Injury Facts, 2005-6 edition, pp. 52-54.
The overall rate of injury in Illinois in 2004 was 55% lower than in 1991. Experts believe that some of the decline is due to improved safety efforts. These programs are great investments, because everyone wins when accidents are prevented.
Frequency of Injury by Type per 100,000 Workers in Illinois |
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| POLICY YEAR |
MEDICAL ONLY |
TTD |
PPD |
PTD |
FATAL |
TOTAL INJURIES |
| 1991 |
6,335 |
1,493 |
1,038 |
4 |
4 |
8,874 |
| 1995 |
4,877 |
1,226 |
675 |
4 |
4 |
6,786 |
2000 |
3,869 |
842 |
689 |
7 |
5 |
5,412 |
2001 |
3,434 |
750 |
654 |
8 |
4 |
4,850 |
2002 |
3,173 |
699 |
636 |
6 |
2 |
4,517 |
2003 |
2,878 |
658 |
607 |
5 |
3 |
4,152 |
2004 |
2,779 |
652 |
594 |
5 |
4 |
4,034 |
Fatal injuries. Transportation incidents continue to be the most common fatal events; men and self-employed workers are disproportionately likely to be killed.
Fatal Occupational Injuries in U.S. and Illinois |
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| YEAR
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U.S.
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ILLINOIS |
| 1992 |
6,217 |
260 |
| 1995 |
6,275 |
249 |
| 2000 |
5,920
|
206 |
| 2001 |
5,915 |
231 |
2002 |
5,534 |
190 |
2003 |
5,575 |
200 |
| 2004 |
5,764 |
208 |
| 2005 |
5,734 |
194 |
2006 |
5,840 |
207 |
Nonfatal injuries. Men represented two-thirds of the nonfatal cases. The most common event was overexertion, the most common type of injury was a sprain or strain, and the trunk was the part of the body most injured.
Source: Illinois Department of Public Health, "Workplace Nonfatal Injuries and Illnesses: Illinois, 2004," July 2006. For more information on the BLS/IDPH studies, go to the IDPH website.
revised 4/30/08
As we all know, the Commission is a high-volume operation. Each arbitrator handles roughly 3,000 cases at any time, which makes it essential to make the best possible use of his or her time.
We also know that opposing parties on a case often do not meet until the day of trial. Valuable trial time is then spent on perfunctory matters, easily-resolved discrepancies, and hallway negotiations.
In response, several years ago the Commission started encouraging groups to hold a "Settlement Day" at the Commission. The idea is to bring the two sides together informally to discuss the case and narrow the issues in dispute.
In a typical Settlement Day, an employer, insurance company, or law firm will invite opposing counsel on 25-100 cases to come to the Commission to see if the issues in dispute can be resolved.
No hearing officers or Commission staff are present at Settlement Day conferences. If the parties reach agreement, an arbitrator is available to review the settlement contracts that day.
Thousands of cases have been resolved through this process, and the Commission encourages groups to try it for themselves.
If you find files that are ready to go and you invite the opposing counsel to a Settlement Day, "your success rate should be over 50%," says Keith Brown, senior claims manager at Wausau Insurance, which has set up over a dozen Settlement Days.
"You can close more cases in a Settlement Day than you would ordinarily close in a day or even a week," he continues. "Everyone's in a frame of mind to settle the claims out. It brings down both parties' caseloads and gets the files out of the system."
For more information, or to schedule a Settlement Day, please contact Kate Devereaux (312/814-1672).
revised 9/26/07
If you are involved in a case in which a court issues an order requiring the Commission to act, please send a copy of the order to Bessie Mims (312/814-6572), and ask the court to return the transcript to us. The courts do not always send us copies of their orders, and cases may fall into limbo if we are not informed. Thanks for your help in keeping the process running smoothly.
Two Appellate Court decisions instruct parties to keep close track of their workers' compensation cases and to follow due diligence in keeping the cases moving.
See Kavonius v. Industrial Commission, 713 NE2d 158, 238 Ill. Dec. 912 (2nd Dist., 1999) and Contreras v. Industrial Commission, 715 NE2d 701, 240 Ill. Dec. 14 (1st Dist., 1999).
In Kavonius, the respondent's appeal of a Commission decision was dismissed because the respondent did not pay for the probable cost of the record and appeal bond in a timely manner, even though a circuit court clerk allegedly returned the documents unfiled.
In Contreras, the respondent's appeal of an arbitrator's decision was dismissed because the court held the respondent did not exercise due diligence in obtaining an authenticated transcript in a timely manner, even though the Commission was late in producing the transcript.
The Appellate Court certified that both cases involve substantial legal questions, which opens the way for the Illinois Supreme Court to consider the cases.
The Commission has taken steps to monitor the production of transcripts more closely. These decisions indicate, however, that parties need to be vigilant about deadlines.
A list of Commission deadlines is available online. The list also appears in the back of the bound copy of the act, which is available at all Commission offices.
The federal Job Accommodation Network (800/526-7234) offers free information regarding workplace accommodations for disabled workers. This service may be particularly helpful to employers that are trying to bring injured workers back to light-duty work.
Given the functional requirements of a job and the individual's limitations, a consultant will provide advice on the appropriate workplace accommodations. Fortunately, most employees can be accommodated at a modest cost. Often, it is cheaper to pay for the accommodations than to continue to pay Temporary Total Disability benefits.
