WSIA

Today marks the end of the fourth week of this year's legislative session, and a key deadline in the legislative process. All bills that are not fiscal or budgetary in nature must be voted out of the House or Senate committee considering them in order to be considered eligible for further consideration down the road. 

Here's what didn't make the cutoff:

- Hearing Aids. The new issue of hearing aid replacement appears to be dead for the session or, more accurately, moved over from the Legislature to the Department of Labor & Industries. Brought forward and supported by a veritable army of audiologists and fitters, HB 2591 and SB 6232 had mandated straight up that workers' comp hearing aids would have to be replaced at least once every five years, no matter once.

Consistent with WSIA's position that these kinds of things are better handled in rule rather than statute, both committees of the Legislature sought out assurances from the Department of Labor & Industries that it would initiate rulemaking to update its policies on hearing aid replacement. Click here for the correspondence between the House Labor Committee and L&I Director Joel Sacks on this. Given this activity, further action on the bills is unlikely.

 - Mental health counselors. SB 6448 and HB 2865, which would have expanded the list of eligible providers in the workers' comp system to include masters-degree level mental health and family counselors, does not appear headed for further action this session. The bills were so poorly drafted that they provoked valid concerns from both Labor & Industries, WSIA, and the retro community, not to mention the impact opening up the medical provider network might have. Nevertheless, this issue has a constituency and lobbyists, and the issue will probably come back in a different form in the future.  

- Benefit limitations due to intoxication. HB 2697 garnered some interest on the employer side with its promise to limit indemnity benefits when an injury is caused by a worker's intoxication from drugs or alcohol. However, this Republican-backed measure really received only a "courtesy hearing" in the House Labor Committee, and was not slated for any further activity.

Here's what's still moving (i.e., everything else):

Among the bills that were voted out of committee by the deadline, the top issues remain:

- Pension Discount Rate. The WSIA-supported bill to bifurcate the pension reserves to allow for different discount rates between the State Fund and the self-insured pensions continues to move along, having received hearings in the respective fiscal committees of the House and Senate. These bills now have until next Wednesday to be voted out of those committees. They face no opposition and an unusual degree of business-labor support.

- Occupational disease presumptions. The bills for Hanford Workers and police and firefighters (both PTSD and cancers/strokes/infections) continue to move. The Hanford bills (HB 1723, SB 5940) have each already passed out of their respective chambers to the other side and are awaiting reconciliation. The PTSD bill has passed the House, but not the Senate yet, while the cancers/stroke/infections expansion has a hearing in the House Appropriations Committee tomorrow, February 3. The first responder bills are HB 1655 & SB 6214 (stress/PTSD), HB 2633 & SB 6213 (cancers/stroke/infections). 

- IMEs. A version of SB 6226 directing telemedicine in IMEs and governing self-insured transmittal of medical records for IMEs, was voted out of committee and continues to move. WSIA successfully sought an amendment on the time restraints that would allow for some flexibility when paper records must be transmitted. Others have sought amendments to the telemedicine portion requiring worker consent and directing that any telemedicine IMEs take place in the state of Washington for the first five years. This one may be susceptible to further tinkering as it works its way through the process.

- Social Security Offset. The bill that would eliminate the social security retirement benefit offset against time loss or pension for a worker who has applied for or is receiving SSR prior to being injured is sitting on the floor calendar of both chambers. While it doesn't appear to be a major priority of either side, the claimants' bar likes it a lot and its likely to continue moving this session.

For the status on these and other bills, click below to download our latest bill tracking sheet.