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Push
to limit injury coverage for impaired workers collapses
by
Paul Davenport
Associated Press
PHOENIX - Fears about opening the door to lawsuits against
employers and a tug of war between business groups and health
care providers have prompted lawmakers to abandon a push to
deny worker's compensation benefits to those injured on the
job because of alcohol or drug use.
With more questions than answers, legislators on Wednesday
threw up their hands on the issue a month after a proposed
constitutional amendment and a bill to implement it were passed
by the House.
Saying they wanted to shore up policies against substance
abuse, business groups sought the legislation after the state
Supreme Court last year overturned a 1999 law promoting drug
free workplaces by restricting benefits to substance impaired
workers.
The ruling said the law clashed with the Arizona Constitution's
mandate for payment of benefits for on the job injuries without
consideration of fault.
Already opposed by advocates for workers, the legislation
ran into more opposition when groups representing health care
providers objected that physicians and hospitals could be
left without compensation for care for injured workers later
determined impaired at the time of injury.
The inability to work out a compromise on that issue resulted
in Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Barbara Leff, R Paradise
Valley, pulling the implementation bill from her committee's
agenda Wednesday. |
Then, Republican Rep. John McComish of Phoenix had the Senate committee
drop his resolution to ask voters to amend the Arizona Constitution
letting lawmakers restrict workers' compensation coverage.
That, it turned out, had the potential to create the "unintended
consequence" of allowing injured workers to sue their employers
if denied coverage on the basis of alleged impairment, McComish
said.
"For this session, the issue appears dead," McComish said,
adding that he hopes lawmakers and advocates can negotiate a compromise
in the future.
Business groups had objected to a change made to the implementation
bill so that health care providers would be paid until
notified that a worker's claim had been denied.
Jason Bezozo, a lobbyist for the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare
Association, said that change was sought to prevent providers from
not receiving payment for medical services.
"If providers have a few of these trauma cases, providers would
be on the hook for uncompensated care," he said.
The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry objected to the change
because it would set the precedent of requiring payouts on denied
claims, said Scott Peterson, senior vice president.
Peterson said business groups suggested that the state use tax dollars
to create a $500,000 special fund to pay for care in enied claims,
but Bezozo said providers shouldn't have to lobby the Legislature
every year for appropriations. |
