Labor & Employment (Workers' Compensation)

SB 655 requires employee leasing companies and their client companies to ensure leased workers have workers' compensation coverage. It mandates that either the leasing company or client company must purchase and maintain this insurance, with options for one policy (voluntary market) or two policies (one voluntary, one residual market). The bill clarifies that both parties share the same legal protections under workers' compensation law and neither is vicariously liable for the other's workplace actions. This directly affects employee leasing businesses and their client employers in New Hampshire. The law takes effect 60 days after passage.

HB 216 removes a one-year limit on counting workers' compensation time toward retirement benefits for New Hampshire state employees. Previously, only up to one year of workers' comp payments counted toward retirement; this bill allows full credit for the entire period of disability benefits received. To qualify, employees must submit a department of labor verification form showing their disability payment dates. This change directly affects state workers injured on the job who receive ongoing workers' compensation payments.

HB 1352 modifies how workers' compensation insurance carriers and self-insurers pay medical bills and resolve disputes. It extends the time carriers have to pay uncontested medical claims, creates an optional mediation process for contested claims, and changes the standard for resolving disputes from "reasonable effort" to "good faith." The bill also increases civil penalties for failing to make good faith efforts to pay claims, raising fines from $2,500 to $5,000 per violation. This directly affects medical providers (like doctors and hospitals) who bill for workers' compensation care and the insurance companies that pay those bills.