Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Wants Workers’ Comp Overhaul

Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Mark Costello is asking lawmakers to overhaul the state’s workers’ compensation system.

Costello appeared before the Oklahoma House’s Committee on Insurance. He’s proposing repeal of the state’s existing Workers’ Compensation Court system and replacing it with an administrative system.

Costello says the objective is to increase benefits to injured workers while reducing insurance premium costs to businesses. He says the existing system results in lower levels of compensation for workers’ injuries.

Costello says that in an administrative system, lawyers would only be involved in appeals of workers’ comp decisions.

Costello says Oklahoma is one of only two states that still settle workers’ compensation disputes in court. He says Oklahoma businesses pay an average premium of $1.43 per $100 in payroll compared to just 56-cents in Arkansas.

In her State of the State address, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin also called for an overhaul of the state’s workers’ compensation system. She said it needs to be changed in a way that will take care of injured workers in a more timely fashion, reduce fraud and waste and stop what she said are runaway costs that have spiraled upwards each year.

Fallin said the current system is one of the most expensive and inefficient workers’ compensation systems in the nation. She says officials must focus on what workers can do, not what they can’t.

She called for a bill to reduce legal and medical costs, get injured workers healthy and back to work and allow claims to be processed quickly and efficiently without unnecessary expenses to businesses.

Topics Workers' Compensation Oklahoma