Labor & Employment

This Act provides a one-time increase of 3% in aggregate worker’s compensation medical expenses to correct reimbursements for medical services coded as evaluation and management (E&M) for worker compensation cases. This is needed as the E&M reimbursement rate for Workers’ Compensation cases has fallen below the reimbursement rate of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services rates. This is a critical need as the State of Delaware is in critical need of physicians to accept and treat worker compensation patients.

This Act does the following: (1) Updates the Workers’ Compensation Act to reflect current practices and technology including enabling workers’ compensations payments to be by made by direct deposit. (2) Allows the Office of Workers’ Compensation to increase the reimbursement percentage of activities from 66.6% to 100%. This ensures that the inspection and safety functions of the Division of Industrial Affairs are fully covered as they are partially covered right now. Insurance carriers pay the assessment imposed by this section. The annual budget process provides caps or spend authorities on these appropriated special funds on an annual basis. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.