The NAII lauded Missouri Circuit Judge Thomas Brown’s decision to grant the request of the state’s workers’ compensation insurers for a temporary injunction blocking the state Insurance Department from implementing an emergency rule that could increase workers’ compensation costs in Missouri.
The emergency regulation, which had been scheduled to go into effect last Thursday, would have allowed employers to contract with a managed care organization (MCO) to provide workers’ comp benefits without first notifying or getting agreement from their workers’ comp carrier. The NAII bulletin asserted that the carrier would then be required “to reimburse the MCO for its services, including fees in addition to treatment provided.”
Judge Brown scheduled a hearing for October 7 on the insurers’ request for a permanent injunction against the regulation.
“For nearly 10 years now, we have been pointing out to the department the inappropriateness of this proposal and how it would increase workers’ comp costs beyond the control of the insurer involved,” stated Nancy Schroeder, NAII assistant VP, workers’ compensation.
The NAII joined other insurers in seeking the restraining order. It noted that the regulation would have been retroactive, subjecting insurers to additional costs back to 1993, and called the provision “totally unreasonable.” It also pointed out that the proposed regulation “would require a workers’ comp insurer to reimburse an MCO for services that the insurer may already be providing itself or under a contract that it has negotiated with another provider under more favorable terms.”
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