Bureaus, Boards, Departments, Courts, Commissions, Funds – often multiple agencies in one state – all with releases, be it by bulletin, letter, order, posting to a website or reference to yet another agency. Bookmarks to review, spiders to watch for webpage changes, third parties and media sources providing feeds – all of it necessary to stay compliant with changes to workers’ compensation claims expenses and forms in 51 jurisdictions. The constant? Annual changes to each state’s travel related expense rates, weekly wages and maximum benefits. And, then there are the form changes…
January Travel Expense and Benefit Reimbursement Rates
With the first-of-the-year announcements completed (which cover about a third of the states), it seems like a good time to share a few general observations:
- The majority of these states have increased the mileage reimbursement rate to $0.51 per mile. The notable exception here is Colorado where the rate has decreased to $0.47.
- While the mileage reimbursement rates have increased for the second year in a row, they are only now getting back to where they were in early 2008 and still short of the high of $0.58.5 in late 2008. Of course, all of this was before the latest crisis du jour in the Middle East.
- The maximum benefits/average weekly wage continue to rise at a slow rate. The national average, published in October 2010 by the U.S. Department of Labor, showed an increase of 2.63%.
- The majority of the states with a January publication showed a more modest increase of between 0-2% – though a few states exceeded the national average, notably New Mexico with an increase of about 5%.
- A few states actually showed a decrease in the average weekly wage/maximum benefit – specifically Michigan, New Jersey and Hawaii, with the latter state dropping almost 2%.
What are expectations for the rest of the year? With the rise in fuel prices, we may see the mileage rate increase and possibly the travel related expenses as well (notably meals). As for the maximum benefit/average weekly wage? Unless there is some drastic change to the U.S. economy in the near future, it’s probable we’ll see more of the same.
Forms
In 2010, Wolters Kluwer published about a total of 240 new or amended workers’ compensation claims and miscellaneous forms. Since the beginning of 2011, another 40 workers’ compensation claim form changes have been published, which is about the same pace as 2010. This includes everything from a simple change of address or contact information (which could affect a large number of forms in a state), to new forms, to updated pamphlets (see FL DWC61 – Important Workers’ Compensation Information for Florida Workers).
The only constant is change – stay tuned for updates on the other two-thirds of the states.
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