Government Affairs Committee Meeting

Workforce Safety and Insurance
North Dakota went through a significant change in how we operate our workforce safety and insurance program in the mid-1990s.  Now more than 20 years into that overhaul, we are considered to have great benefits, at low premiums, and some other states namely Montana have asked, how? Representative George Keiser will be on hand to share a presentation he has given to his counterparts in Montana, explaining why North Dakota has a great WSI system and why it’s important the business community continues to be engaged in these discussions.
 
Good Benefits, Good Payor, Low Premiums—How?
Proactive Legislative Oversight. In response to a nearly $250 million unfunded liability and excessive premium adjustments in the early 1990s, the legislature and stakeholder groups became very active with reforming the system in the mid-1990s. The largest reform package was referred to the voters and upheld. Ongoing reform continues to this day.
During the interim, the legislature monitors system trends and workers’ compensation developments through the interim legislative Workers’ Compensation Review Committee.
 
Medical Cost Containment. WSI is a managed care organization. Medical and hospital fee schedules, utilization review, medical bill review, evidence-based treatment guidelines, medical case management triage of complex claims, and a pharmacy formulary all serve to ensure appropriate medical care is provided.
 
Return-to-Work Programs. Time-loss claims account for approximately 13% of the total claims in North Dakota compared to 20% in other jurisdictions. North Dakota employees have a good work ethic, and if they are injured, they want to get back to work. WSI’s Return-to-Work program greatly assists these efforts.
 
Good Service and Overall Customer Satisfaction. In FY2015, WSI received 24,767 filed claims with an acceptance rate of 92%. The WSI acceptance rate of 92% exceeds the acceptance rate of other similar states.
 
Periodic injured employee and employer customer satisfaction surveys, independently conducted for WSI, consistently rank in the "high" satisfaction category. On a low-to-high satisfaction scale of 1 to 5, most recent surveys reflected an injured worker satisfaction rate of 4.13 and an employer satisfaction rate of 4.34.

Agenda:
1:30 p.m. – Introductions

• Bernie Dardis, Policy Vice Chair, GNDC

• Rep. George Keiser, Chairman House Industry, Business and Labor Committee

• Bernie Dardis, Policy Vice Chair, GNDC