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Daily Legislative Brief from April 9, 2019

Insurance

HB 1399 – Relating to Workers Compensation

On Tuesday, April 9, HB 1399 by Representative Cord Byrd (R-Jacksonville Beach) was heard in the House Government Operations and Technology Appropriations Subcommittee and was reported favorably with 12 yeas and 0 nays. AIF’s Senior Vice President of State and Federal Affairs, Brewster Bevis, stood in opposition to this legislation.

The workers’ compensation system should be a self-executing system and should “assure the quick and efficient delivery of disability and medical benefits to an injured worker and to facilitate the worker’s return to gainful reemployment at a reasonable cost to the employer.” This bill makes changes to the workers’ compensation law to address the delivery of benefits and system cost drivers, but unfortunately does not adequately address the real cost driver: litigation.

HB 1399 will now move to the House Commerce Committee.

AIF supports workers’ comp reform that attacks the real cost drivers, most specifically, litigation. We support SB 1636, Relating to Workers Compensation, and hope that HB 1399 will be similarly strengthened to provide marketplace certainty in response to the Castellanos case.