The goal of the Minnesota Workers’ Compensation system is to successfully return injured workers to the work force. To this end, Minnesota uses a vocational rehabilitation system that utilizes qualified rehabilitation consultants (QRC), job placement vendors, and when appropriate retraining plans, to insure that injured workers not only return to work, but are successful when they do.
Vocational rehabilitation services are planned by you, the employer/insurer and a qualified rehabilitation consultant (QRC). These services are:
· Modifying job duties to fit abilities;
· Finding work with a different employer if yours does not have suitable;
· Training for a new job.
A QRC conducts a vocational rehabilitation consultation to determine whether you are eligible for rehabilitation services. If you are eligible, the QRC will write a rehabilitation plan and coordinate rehabilitation services. The QRC will work with you, your employer and the insurer to plan the serviced you need to return to suitable gainful employment.
Currently the Commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry is trying to pass legislation that could seriously undermine the ability of s QRC’s to do their job. The substantive points are as follows:
1. QRC’s will be required to file a plan progress report 18 months after filing a rehab plan and every 6 months thereafter (presumably to better allow DOLI to monitor rehab plans that continue beyond 18 months);
2. DOLI will be given express authority to schedule a rehab conference under 176.106 (presumably to deal with what they perceive to be excessive or inappropriate rehab services);
3. The maximum hourly rates paid to QRC’s will be reduced by 15% after 39 weeks or $3,500, and by 25% after 52 weeks or $5,200 (the previously proposed reduction by 50% after 104 weeks or $10,500 has been withdrawn);
4. The maximum hourly rates paid to QRC’s will be reduced by 50% for all QRC’s for medical management services;
5. The maximum hourly rates paid to QRC’s will be reduced by 50% for all QRC’s and all services if:
a. The QRC does not consult with, or make a good faith effort to consult with, the date of injury (DOI) employer regarding whether the employee can be expected to return to suitable gainful employment with the DOI employer;
b. The DOI employer tells the QRC they will offer the employee suitable gainful employment; or
c. The rehab plan provides for a return to work with the DOI employer;
6. The mandatory rehab conference after 70 weeks of services has been withdrawn;
7. The bonus for securing suitable gainful employment within 52 weeks has been withdrawn.
The danger in the Commissioner’s proposed changes is that QRC’s will be forced to place injured workers to work before they are ready and possibly in positions that are not suitable for their injuries. This will be setting injured workers up for failure and ultimately undermining the ultimate goal of the entire system.
Thousands of Minnesotans are injured on the job annually. With the current economy, it is imperative that any proposed changes to the Workers’ Compensation be focused on providing access to the best vocational rehabilitation care available and not limiting the vocational rehabilitation that we currently have.
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