YES:
MR. SPEAKER:
Your Committee on Employment and Labor , to which was referred House Bill
1536 , has had the same under consideration and begs leave to report the same back to the
House with the recommendation that said bill be amended as follows:
the police officer or firefighter is fully recovered, the common council
shall provide medical benefits that are necessary until the police officer
or firefighter is no longer in need of medical care.
(g) The provisions of IC 22-3-2 through IC 22-3-6 apply to:
(1) members of the Indiana general assembly; and
(2) field examiners of the state board of accounts.".
employer's own risk, shall, within thirty (30) days of the board sending
notice under this subsection, pay to the worker's compensation board
for the benefit of the fund an assessed amount that The total amount
of the assessment may not exceed two and one-half percent (2.5%) of
the total amount of all worker's compensation paid to injured employees
or their beneficiaries under IC 22-3-2 through IC 22-3-6 for the
calendar year next preceding the due date of such payment. For the
purposes of calculating the assessment under this subsection, the board
may consider payments for temporary total disability, temporary partial
disability, permanent total impairment, permanent partial impairment,
or death of an employee. The board may not consider payments for
medical benefits in calculating an assessment under this subsection. If
the amount to the credit of the second injury fund on or before October
1 of any year exceeds one million dollars ($1,000,000), the assessment
allowed under this subsection shall not be assessed or collected during
the ensuing year. But when on or before October 1 of any year the
amount to the credit of the fund is less than one million dollars
($1,000,000), the payments of not more than two and one-half percent
(2.5%) of the total amount of all worker's compensation paid to injured
employees or their beneficiaries under IC 22-3-2 through IC 22-3-6 for
the calendar year next preceding that date shall be resumed and paid
into the fund. The board may not use an assessment rate greater than
twenty-five hundredths of one percent (0.25%) above the amount
recommended by the study performed before the assessment. The
board shall assess all employers for the liabilities, including
administrative expenses, of the second injury fund. The total
amount of the assessment shall be allocated between self-insured
employers and insured employers based on paid losses for the
preceding calendar year. The method of assessing self-insured
employers shall be based on paid losses. The total amount of
assessments allocated to insured employers shall be collected by the
insured employers' worker's compensation insurers according to
the proportion of each insurer's worker's compensation direct
standard premiums during the preceding calendar year in relation
to all insurer's worker's compensation direct standard premiums
during the preceding calendar year. The portion of the total
amount that is collected from self-insured employers is a sum equal
to that proportion of the paid losses for the preceding calendar
year, which the paid losses of all self-insured employers bore to the
total paid losses made by all self-insured employers and insured
employers during the preceding calendar year. The portion of the
total amount that is collected from insured employers is a sum
equal to that proportion of the total paid losses for the preceding
calendar year, which the total paid losses on behalf of all insured
employers bore to the total paid losses on behalf of all self-insured
employers and insured employers during the preceding calendar
year. An employer who has ceased to be a self-insurer continues to
be liable for assessments based on paid losses made by the
employer in the preceding calendar year.
(d) The board shall enter into a contract with an actuary or another
qualified firm that has experience in calculating worker's compensation
liabilities. Not later than September 1 of each year, the actuary or other
qualified firm shall calculate the recommended funding level of the
fund based on the previous year's claims and inform the board of the
results of the calculation. If the amount to the credit of the fund is less
than the amount required under subsection (c), the board may conduct
an assessment under subsection (c). The board shall pay the costs of the
contract under this subsection with money in the fund.
(e) An assessment collected under subsection (c) on an employer
who is not self-insured must be assessed through a surcharge based on
the employer's premium. An assessment collected under subsection (c)
does not constitute an element of loss, but for the purpose of collection
shall be treated as a separate cost imposed upon insured employers. A
premium surcharge under this subsection must be collected at the same
time and in the same manner in which the premium for coverage is
collected, and must be shown as a separate amount on a premium
statement. A premium surcharge under this subsection must be
excluded from the definition of premium for all purposes, including the
computation of insurance producer commissions or premium taxes.
However, an insurer may cancel a worker's compensation policy for
nonpayment of the premium surcharge. A cancellation under this
subsection must be carried out under the statutes applicable to the
nonpayment of premiums.
(f) The sums shall be paid by the board to the treasurer of state, to
be deposited in a special account known as the second injury fund. The
funds are not a part of the general fund of the state. Any balance
remaining in the account at the end of any fiscal year shall not revert to
the general fund. The funds shall be used only for the payment of
awards of compensation and expense of medical examinations or
treatment made and ordered by the board and chargeable against the
fund pursuant to this section, and shall be paid for that purpose by the
treasurer of state upon award or order of the board.
(g) If an employee who is entitled to compensation under IC 22-3-2
through IC 22-3-6 either:
(1) exhausts the maximum benefits under section 22 of this
chapter without having received the full amount of award granted
to the employee under section 10 of this chapter; or
(2) exhausts the employee's benefits under section 10 of this
chapter;
then such employee may apply to the board, who may award the
employee compensation from the second injury fund established by this
section, as follows under subsection (h).
(h) An employee who has exhausted the employee's maximum
benefits under section 10 of this chapter may be awarded additional
compensation equal to sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66 2/3%) of the
employee's average weekly wage at the time of the employee's injury,
not to exceed the maximum then applicable under section 22 of this
chapter, for a period of not to exceed one hundred fifty (150) weeks
upon competent evidence sufficient to establish:
(1) that the employee is totally and permanently disabled from
causes and conditions of which there are or have been objective
conditions and symptoms proven that are not within the physical
or mental control of the employee; and
(2) that the employee is unable to support the employee in any
gainful employment, not associated with rehabilitative or
vocational therapy.
(i) The additional award may be renewed during the employee's total
and permanent disability after appropriate hearings by the board for
successive periods not to exceed one hundred fifty (150) weeks each.
The provisions of this section apply only to injuries occurring
subsequent to April 1, 1950, for which awards have been or are in the
future made by the board under section 10 of this chapter. Section 16
of this chapter does not apply to compensation awarded from the
second injury fund under this section.
this section, any a member of the fire department or police department
employed in the city carrying the worker's occupational disease
insurance under this section is limited to recovery of medical and
surgical care, medicines, laboratory, curative and palliative agents and
means, x-ray, diagnostic and therapeutic services to the extent that the
services are provided for in the worker's occupational disease policy so
procured by the city, and may not also recover in addition to that policy
for the same benefits provided in IC 36-8-4.
(e) If the medical benefits provided under a worker's occupational
disease policy procured by the common council terminate for any
reason before the police officer or firefighter is fully recovered, the
common council shall provide medical benefits that are necessary until
the police officer or firefighter is no longer in need of medical care.
(f) Nothing in this section affects the rights and liabilities of
employees and employers had by them prior to April 1, 1963, under
this chapter.
be had as in this subsection mentioned.
(b) The application making claim for compensation filed with the
worker's compensation board shall state the following:
(1) The approximate date of the last day of the last exposure and
the approximate date of the disablement.
(2) The general nature and character of the illness or disease
claimed.
(3) The name and address of the employer by whom employed on
the last day of the last exposure, and if employed by any other
employer after such last exposure and before disablement, the
name and address of such other employer or employers.
(4) In case of death, the date and place of death.
(5) Amendments to applications making claim for compensation
which relate to the same disablement or disablement resulting in
death originally claimed upon may be allowed by the board in its
discretion, and, in the exercise of such discretion, it may, in proper
cases, order a trial de novo. Such amendment shall relate back to
the date of the filing of the original application so amended.
(c) Upon the filing of such application, the board shall set the date
of hearing, which shall be as early as practicable, and shall notify the
parties, in the manner prescribed by the board, of the time and place of
hearing. The hearing of all claims for compensation on account of
occupational disease shall be held in the county in which the last
exposure occurred or in any adjoining county, except when the parties
consent to a hearing elsewhere. Claims assigned to an individual board
member that are considered to be of an emergency nature by that board
member, may be heard in any county within the board member's
jurisdiction.
(d) The board by any or all of its members shall hear the parties at
issue, their representatives, and witnesses, and shall determine the
dispute in a summary manner. The award shall be filed with the record
of proceedings, and a copy thereof shall immediately be sent by
registered mail to each of the parties in dispute.
(e) If an application for review is made to the board within thirty
(30) days from the date of the award made by less than all the members,
the full board, if the first hearing was not held before the full board,
shall review the evidence, or, if deemed advisable, hear the parties at
issue, their representatives, and witnesses as soon as practicable, and
shall make an award and file the same with the finding of the facts on
which it is based and send a copy thereof to each of the parties in
dispute, in like manner as specified in subsection (d).
(f) An award of the board by less than all of the members as
provided in this section, if not reviewed as provided in this section,
shall be final and conclusive. An award by the full board shall be
conclusive and binding unless either party to the dispute, within thirty
(30) days after receiving a copy of such award, appeals to the court of
appeals under the same terms and conditions as govern appeals in
ordinary civil actions. The court of appeals shall have jurisdiction to
review all questions of law and of fact. The board, of its own motion,
may certify questions of law to the court of appeals for its decision and
determination. An assignment of errors that the award of the full board
is contrary to law shall be sufficient to present both the sufficiency of
the facts found to sustain the award and the sufficiency of the evidence
to sustain the finding of facts. All such appeals and certified questions
of law shall be submitted upon the date filed in the court of appeals,
shall be advanced upon the docket of the court, and shall be determined
at the earliest practicable date, without any extensions of time for filing
briefs. An award of the full board affirmed on appeal, by the employer,
shall be increased thereby five percent (5%), and by order of the court
may be increased ten percent (10%).
(g) Upon order of the worker's compensation board made after five
(5) days notice is given to the opposite party, any party in interest may
file in the circuit or superior court of the county in which the
disablement occurred a certified copy of the memorandum of
agreement, approved by the board, or of an order or decision of the
board, or of an award of the full board unappealed from, or of an award
of the full board affirmed upon an appeal, whereupon the court shall
render judgment in accordance therewith and notify the parties. Such
judgment shall have the same effect and all proceedings in relation
thereto shall thereafter be the same as though such judgment has been
rendered in a suit duly heard and determined by the court. Any such
judgment of such circuit or superior court, unappealed from or affirmed
on appeal or modified in obedience to the mandate of the court of
appeals, shall be modified to conform to any decision of the industrial
board ending, diminishing, or increasing any weekly payment under the
provisions of subsection (i) upon the presentation to it of a certified
copy of such decision.
(h) In all proceedings before the worker's compensation board or in
a court under the compensation provisions of this chapter, the costs
shall be awarded and taxed as provided by law in ordinary civil actions
in the circuit court.
(i) The power and jurisdiction of the worker's compensation board
over each case shall be continuing, and, from time to time, it may, upon
its own motion or upon the application of either party on account of a
change in conditions, make such modification or change in the award
ending, lessening, continuing, or extending the payments previously
awarded, either by agreement or upon hearing, as it may deem just,
subject to the maximum and minimum provided for in this chapter.
When compensation which is payable in accordance with an award or
settlement contract approved by the board is ordered paid in a lump
sum by the board, no review shall be had as in this subsection
mentioned. Upon making any such change, the board shall immediately
send to each of the parties a copy of the modified award. No such
modification shall affect the previous award as to any money paid
thereunder. The board shall not make any such modification upon its
own motion, nor shall any application therefor be filed by either party
after the expiration of two (2) years from the latest of the following:
(1) The last day for which compensation was paid under the
original award made either by agreement or upon hearing, except
that applications for increased permanent partial impairment are
barred unless filed within one (1) year from the last day for which
compensation was paid for:
(A) temporary total disability;
(B) permanent partial impairment; or
(C) permanent total disability.
(2) The date of an award for:
(A) temporary total disability;
(B) permanent partial impairment; or
(C) permanent total disability.
(3) The last day that medical services under section 17 of this
chapter were provided to the employee.
The board may at any time correct any clerical error in any finding or
award.
(j) The board or any member thereof may, upon the application of
either party or upon its own motion, appoint a disinterested and duly
qualified physician or surgeon to make any necessary medical
examination of the employee and to testify in respect thereto. Such
physician or surgeon shall be allowed traveling expenses and a
reasonable fee, to be fixed by the board. The fees and expenses of such
physician or surgeon shall be paid by the state only on special order of
the board or a member thereof.
(k) The board or any member thereof may, upon the application of
either party or upon its own motion, appoint a disinterested and duly
qualified industrial hygienist, industrial engineer, industrial physician,
or chemist to make any necessary investigation of the occupation in
which the employee alleges that he was last exposed to the hazards of
the occupational disease claimed upon, and testify with respect to the
occupational disease health hazards found by such person or persons to
exist in such occupation. Such person or persons shall be allowed
traveling expenses and a reasonable fee, to be fixed by the board. The
fees and expenses of such persons shall be paid by the state, only on
special order of the board or a member thereof.
(l) Whenever any claimant misconceives the claimant's remedy and
files an application for adjustment of a claim under IC 22-3-2 through
IC 22-3-6 and it is subsequently discovered, at any time before the final
disposition of such cause, that the claim for injury or death which was
the basis for such application should properly have been made under
the provisions of this chapter, then the application so filed under
IC 22-3-2 through IC 22-3-6 may be amended in form or substance or
both to assert a claim for such disability or death under the provisions
of this chapter, and it shall be deemed to have been so filed as amended
on the date of the original filing thereof, and such compensation may
be awarded as is warranted by the whole evidence pursuant to the
provisions of this chapter. When such amendment is submitted, further
or additional evidence may be heard by the worker's compensation
board when deemed necessary. Nothing in this section contained shall
be construed to be or permit a waiver of any of the provisions of this
chapter with reference to notice or time for filing a claim, but notice of
filing of a claim, if given or done, shall be deemed to be a notice or
filing of a claim under the provisions of this chapter if given or done
within the time required in this chapter.".
Renumber all SECTIONS consecutively.
and when so amended that said bill do pass.