Kansas bills would extend disability payments, allow provider choice
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Kansas lawmakers on Wednesday introduced workers compensation bills that would extend permanent total disability benefits for the lifetime of the injured worker and allow injured workers to choose their own providers.
H.B. 2311 would modify state statutes to require that permanent total disability benefits — including temporary total, temporary partial and permanent partial — be paid during the continuance of the disability from the date of maximum medical improvement for the lifetime of the employee at the weekly rate of compensation in effect on the date of the injury.
Currently, the employer’s maximum liability for permanent total disability compensation is capped at $155,000 per injury.
S.B. 203 would allow injured workers to choose their own designated health care provider and require the employer to pay for those services. Current law allows employers to choose the provider, and to put forth two names of providers as replacements if the injured worker is not satisfied with the care received.
A third comp bill introduced Wednesday, H.B. 2307, would modify state law to allow workers to obtain benefits for mental injuries brought on by a “sudden, severe emotional shock” traceable to a specific work-related event or a series of work-related events that cause the worker to develop a psychological injury. Currently, Kansas law only covers mental injuries in workers compensation when they are brought on by a workplace physical injury.
All three bills would take effect if signed into law once they are published in the state’s statute book.
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