Worker’s Compensation is becoming a serious
impediment to our ability to attract and retain jobs in Tennessee.
Multi-state companies tell us that their workers’ comp insurance rates are
higher in Tennessee than in any of the other states they do business in.
Our Department of Economic and Community
Development has been told by several companies that Tennessee’s high costs
for workers’ comp insurance take our state out of the running for business
expansion and relocation. While we want to protect our workers’ comp
system so that injured workers can get a fair settlement in a timely
manner, we must find a way to contain these costs.
Tennessee is one of only two states that allow
courts to set workers’ comp awards. This system fosters inconsistency and
often makes the maximum awards the norm. The other 48 states have some
form of a Workers Compensation Review Board. This review board would be a
panel of experts who could make fair and consistent judgments.
A recent study by the Workers Compensation
Research Institute found that Tennessee’s court administered awards system
gives the feeling that there are many workers’ comp systems in Tennessee.
That’s a fair judgment, especially considering that some of these cases
are decided by criminal and general sessions judges.
By establishing this Review Board we will begin
the process of converging these many different systems into one place.
Workers’ Compensation insurance isn’t the only form of insurance that is
hampering the growth and threatening the survival of small business in our
state.
