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Lawsuit claims Oklahoma’s comp self-insurance program is illegal

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Lawsuit claims Oklahoma’s comp self-insurance program is illegal

Five Oklahoma City attorneys are asking the state’s Supreme Court to rule that the workers compensation self-insurance program operated for state employees is illegal and not financially sound. 

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the state’s Office of Management and Enterprise Services on behalf of “resident taxpayers, citizens, and voters,” the attorneys claim the “workers’ compensation benefit plan for employees of state agencies, boards, commissions, and other state entities, has no statutorily authorized capital or surplus, and an inadequate excess policy of insurance” and that the “lack of capital, surplus, and an adequate excess policy of insurance places taxpayers at risk.” 

The lawsuit also claims there is no oversight of the self-insurance plan and that the rules “of the Workers’ Compensation Commission require an annual review of self-insurance employers, a requirement ignored by the (Office of Management and Enterprise Services).”

A spokesman for that office issued this statement: “(The Office of Management and Enterprise Services) does not comment on specifics of a pending lawsuit. OMES absolutely stands behind the legality, integrity, stability and success of the workers’ compensation program.”

 

 

 

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