• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • WCW HOME
  • Submit a Wire!
  • Advertising
  • Media Partners
  • About
  • Contact Us

WorkCompWire

Your Trusted Source for Workers Compensation News

Enlyte
  • Workers Compensation News
    • Workers Compensation Industry News
    • Association, Rating & Research News
    • Claims, Legal, & Compliance News
    • Legislative & Regulatory News
    • Risk Management News
    • Work Force & Human Resource News
  • Featured Articles
  • Leaders Speak
  • Editor’s Forum
  • People On The Move

TDI-DWC Working On New Protections for Injured Employees

July 3, 2019 - WorkCompWire

Austin, TX – The Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) is working on rules to enact new legislation that prevents injured employees from getting surprise medical bills after receiving treatment at federal military facilities.

DWC asked lawmakers to look at the issue after seeing an increase in complaints from injured employees who were billed for medical care at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio, a Level 1 trauma center.

Because of conflicting state and federal guidelines, some workers’ compensation insurance carriers applied state guidelines to deny bills, or only paid a portion of the charges. Since federal law requires military treatment facilities to collect reimbursement of all billed charges, the remaining balance of bills was sent to the injured employees. After 90 days, many debts were turned over to the Department of Treasury for federal debt collection, and many times injured employees’ tax refunds or Social Security benefits were garnished.

“When our data showed that injured employees were being billed thousands of dollars for services they received, a red flag went up,” said Texas Workers’ Compensation Commissioner Cassie Brown. “The basic premise of workers’ compensation insurance coverage in Texas is that injured employees receive benefits at no cost for compensable injuries, and in return, employers are protected from most lawsuits.”

Senate Bill 935 requires workers’ compensation insurance reimbursement rates for medical care provided at a federal military treatment facility to be the same rate provided by federal regulations. It also clarifies that medical care provided at these facilities is exempt from certain state workers’ compensation requirements involving billing and preauthorization.

DWC is developing new rules to ensure these requirements are implemented.

If an injured employee gets a bill for medical services they received at any facility, they should call DWC customer service at 1-800-252-7031.

Source: TDI-DWC

Filed Under: Industry News, Legislative & Regulatory News, Top Stories, Workers' Compensation

Primary Sidebar

Get Our Free Newsletter:

Select list(s) to subscribe to


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: WorkCompWire.com, PO Box 1114, Culver City, CA, 90232, http://www.workcompwire.com. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

myMatrixx

Paradigm

Healthesystems

MTI

Follow Us on Twitter

Tweets by WorkCompWire

Workers Compensation News Topics

  • Top Stories
  • Featured Articles
  • Leaders Speak
  • Editor’s Forum
  • The RxProfessor
  • Industry News
  • Association, Rating & Research News
  • People On The Move
  • Claims, Legal, & Compliance News
  • Legislative & Regulatory News
  • Risk Management News
  • Work Force & Human Resource News
  • Workers’ Compensation

Wire Archives

Copyright WorkCompWire © 2023