Workers' Compensation Reform Experts

The passage of workers' compensation reform is underway and it's our goal to provide the information, resources and education necessary to help our clients fully understand its impact. Below you will find our latest update.

Preferred Provider Program

As a part of the 2011 Illinois Workers’ Compensation reform act, Illinois employers now have the ability to direct workers injured on the job to specific medical providers through the creation of Preferred Provider Programs (PPPs). Although the act was signed into law on June 28, 2011, within the last few months the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission has introduced the required approval process to be a Preferred Provider as well as the employer notification forms necessary to participate. For those of you who plan to use a PPP, the following employee notification forms must be provided to injured workers at the time of a workplace injury and posted throughout the workplace.

• Preferred Provider Advisory Form
• Preferred Provider Employee Notification Form

We would encourage you to download these forms and transfer them onto your letterhead at this time. The state has approved 3 PPPs but have not yet released the rules by how they are going to operate. The three PPPs which have been approved are: CorVel Corporation, HFN Inc, and Coventry Health Care. We are being told that it will take the Illinois Department of Insurance 90 days or less to distribute the rules.

Benefits of a Preferred Provider Program

One of the cornerstones of this section of the reform is the approval of PPPs by the Illinois Department of Insurance. As a part of the approval process, the Department of Insurance is evaluating applicant medical networks to ensure that each approved program has doctors with appropriate experience and focus on occupational medicine. The evaluation of providers will be based upon objective medical quality and patient outcome measures. We believe this focus is a benefit to employees as it is designed to result in medical care which is precise to address the specific workplace injury. This focus is also a benefit to employers as its intent is to provide employees with timely and suitable care to get them back to pre-injury status as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Knowledge is Power

Assurance clients have our commitment that we will continue to keep them educated and informed on important changes within Workers' Compensation reform. Below are a few of the previous notices we've published:

• Workers' Compensation Reform Bill Passes General Assembly
• Workers' Compensation Rate and Loss Cost Reduction