Injured Iowa workers seeking benefits from their employers are waiting longer to get their hearing dates as a state agency transitions to a new filing system.
Iowa Workers’ Compensation Commissioner Joseph Cortese told lawmakers in a letter on Sept. 24 that a moratorium on scheduling new hearings will likely continue for another four to six weeks.
His agency imposed the moratorium in July when it launched a new online case management system to replace a legacy system that dated to the 1970s.
Shutting down the old system has temporarily prevented the agency from being able to schedule new hearings because that tool isn’t ready to be launched yet.
Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines, says there is growing frustration among lawyers, claimants and employers about the impact. He says workers “need to know when their date to get justice is” and that hearing deadlines can lead to settlements.
Cortese says the situation shouldn’t result in delays in deciding claims. He says it means only that cases that will go to hearing after June 30, 2020, will be scheduled later than normal.
Topics Iowa
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