Committee Meeting Information

September 11, 2006

Central Wyoming Counseling Center

Casper, Wyoming

 

Committee Members Present

Senator Charles K. Scott, Co-Chairman

Representative Doug Osborn, Co-Chairman

Senator Pat Aullman

Senator John Barrasso

Senator Ken Decaria

Senator Mike Massie

Representative Bob Brechtel

Representative Elaine Harvey

Representative John Hastert

Representative Jerry Iekel

Representative Burke Jackson

Representative Marty Martin

Representative Layton Morgan

 

Committee Members Absent

Representative Bruce Barnard

 

 

Legislative Service Office Staff

Gerald W. Laska, Staff Attorney

Joy Hill, Associate Research Analyst

 

Others Present at Meeting

Please refer to Appendix 1 to review the Committee Sign-in Sheet
for a list of other individuals who attended the meeting.

Executive Summary

The Committee met at the Central Wyoming Counseling Center in Casper on September 11, 2006.  The Wyoming Healthcare Commission advised the Committee on the status of pending studies.  Department of Employment and Attorney General representatives, as well as representatives of employers, employees and the legal community, testified regarding co-employee tort immunity under workers' compensation.  Representatives of emergency medical service providers advised the Committee on staff recruitment and retention problems.

 

The Committee voted to sponsor bills to: amend the public works prevailing wage law; amend co-employee immunity under the workers' compensation program; and increase the state's subrogation percentage when an injured worker recovers money for the work injury from someone other than the worker's employer or co-employee.

 

The Committee tabled proposed bills to:  repeal the prevailing wage law; propose a constitutional amendment to define co-employee immunity under the workers' compensation program; and create a new program for co-employee liability insurance under the workers' compensation program.

 

The Committee requested additional draft legislation for a study of a retirement system and other possible recruitment and training incentives for emergency medical technicians.

 

The next meeting of the Committee will be December 5 and 6, 2006, in Cheyenne.

 

Call To Order

Co-Chairman Scott called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m.  The following sections summarize the Committee proceedings by topic.  Please refer to Appendix 2 to review the Committee Meeting Agenda.

 

Wyoming Healthcare Commission: Status of Pending Studies

Dixie Roberts, Wyoming Healthcare Commission, briefly reviewed the studies currently underway by the Commission, including the following:

 

·         Survey of Wyoming health care providers.  The commission is collecting data regarding the number of health care providers, percentage in active practice, full-time versus part-time practitioners and hours worked.  The purpose is to analyze health care provider shortages by specialty and location, and to anticipate spot shortages caused by planned retirements or relocations;

 

·         Medicaid reform.  The Commission has contracted with Milliman, Inc., to study current Wyoming Medicaid benefits, compare them to other states' benefits and make data-driven recommendations for reform;

 

·         Wyoming Health Information Organization (WyHIO).  As part of the on-going health information technology study authorized during the 2005 General Session, the Commission is conducting an inventory of information technology hardware currently in use by Wyoming health care providers;

 

·         Specialty Hospitals.  The Commission was directed during the 2006 Budget Session to collect information and study issues related to the increasing prevalence of specialty hospitals and clinics in the state.  Preliminary results of the survey have been prepared and are being analyzed for possible legislative response;

 

·         Medical error reporting.  The Commission is preparing a report on improvements to the medical error reporting legislation passed during the 2005 General Session.

 

The Committee generally discussed with Ms. Roberts the need to coordinate WHCC studies with similar work being done within the Department of Health, the need to investigate other states' reform efforts and the importance of considering state-funded reforms as well as federal compliance. 

 

Public Works Prevailing Wage Issues

Chairman Scott explained two proposed bills to the Committee.  07LSO-0096.W1, "Prevailing wage amendments," (Appendix 3) would make several minor amendments to the prevailing wage law, as requested by the Department of Employment.  07LSO-0097.W2, "Prevailing wage repeal," (Appendix 4) would repeal the Wyoming prevailing wage law.  Based upon a straw poll, the Committee decided to proceed with the amendments bill and to table the repeal bill.

 

Charles Rando, Administrator of the Department of Employment's Administration and Support Division, further explained the prevailing wage amendments bill.  According the Mr. Rando, the bill would create a single statewide statistical district for non-federally funded construction projects, authorize the department to initiate investigations of violations, provide a bid preference for contractors participating in the prevailing wage survey, and authorize the department to request a waiver of federal survey requirements.

 

Mr. Rando stated that the department supports the bill, but would recommend limiting the additional bid preference to 1% and deleting the authority to request a waiver of federal requirements because the federal Department of Labor has already rejected that possibility.

 

Committee members discussed the benefits and detriments of prevailing wage laws in general.  Several members of the public commented in support of and against repeal of the prevailing wage law.

 

The Committee made the following amendments to the bill:

·         Instead of naming Laramie and Natrona Counties as separate wage districts for federal highway and construction projects, the bill should more generically refer to "those communities large enough to be treated as separate survey districts" (with discretion in LSO staff to coordinate language with applicable federal law);

·         The 2% bid preference for contractors participating in the wage survey was reduced to 1%;

·         Page 5-lines 13 through 15, regarding authorization for a waiver of federal survey requirements, was deleted.

 

Representative Hastert, seconded by Representative Iekel moved that the Committee sponsor the bill as amended.  The motion passed on a vote of 13-0.

 

Co-Employee Immunity

Chairman Scott requested that Staff Attorney Gerald Laska explain the four bills prepared on this topic at the request of the Committee.  According to Mr. Laska:

 

·         07LSO-0092.W1, "Worker's compensation co-employee immunity amendments," (Appendix 5) is a resurrect of Representative Cohee's 2006 bill.  The bill would amend W.S. 27-14-104 to clarify that an employee is immune from civil liability for workplace injuries to co-employees unless the employee acted with intent to cause physical harm or injury to the injured employee.  The bill would further explain that no other degree of negligence would equate to intentional injury and would declare the legislature's intent to overrule a Supreme Court decision that equated intent to injure with willful and wanton conduct.

 

·         07LSO-0093.W1, "Worker's compensation immunity-constitutional amendment," (Appendix 6) would add language to Article 10, Section 4 of the Wyoming Constitution, similar to the previous bill's statutory amendment.

 

·         07LSO-0094.W1, "Worker's compensation subrogation limits," (Appendix 7) would double the state's share of a tort recovery, when an injured worker brings a claim against someone other than his employer or co-employee, from one-third to two-thirds of the recovery.

 

·         07LSO-0095.W1, "Worker's compensation co-employee insurance," (Appendix 8) would authorize the Worker's Safety and Compensation Division to make available to employers a separate line of liability insurance, at additional premium, that would pay for any successful claims by an injured worker against a co-employee, up to $2 Million but not including injuries resulting from criminal conduct.

 

Committee members discussed with Department of Employment representatives and the Department's assistant attorney general the number of co-employee cases, the impact of the Supreme Court's adoption of the willful and wanton standard for co-employee liability, the possible disincentive to bringing third party lawsuits if the state's subrogation amount were doubled and the department's perceived difficulties in implementing a new co-employee insurance program.  Various members of the public, representing industry, organized labor, personal injury plaintiffs' attorneys and defense attorneys, spoke in support of and against any legislative attempt to overrule the Supreme Court's decision adopting the willful and wanton standard.

 

Chairman Scott conducted a straw poll to determine the Committee's wishes.  Based upon the poll, the bills regarding a constitutional amendment and a new co-employee insurance program were tabled.

 

Representative Osborn, seconded by Representative Harvey, moved that the Committee sponsor 07LSO-0092.W1, Worker's compensation co-employee immunity amendments.  The motion carried 8-5.  Senators Aullman, Barrasso and Scott and Representatives Brechtel, Harvey, Iekel, Jackson and Osborn voted aye; Senators Decaria and Massie and Representatives Hastert, Martin and Morgan voted no.

 

Representative Osborn, seconded by Senator Aullman, moved that the Committee sponsor 07LSO-0094.W1, Worker's compensation subrogation limits.  The motion carried 7-6.  Senators Aullman, Barrasso and Scott and Representatives Harvey, Iekel, Jackson and Osborn voted aye; Senators Decaria and Massie and Representatives Brechtel, Hastert, Martin and Morgan voted no.

 

Department of Employment Director Cynthia Pomeroy advised the Committee that she had additional bill requests regarding minor amendments to unemployment compensation, unfair employment practices and worker's compensation.  Representative Martin, Representative Iekel and Senator Scott, respectively, volunteered to sponsor those bills individually.

 

Emergency Medical Services Update

Will Gay, Lauri Wempen and Rusty Palmer addressed the Committee on behalf of emergency medical technician (EMT) service providers.  They described the difficulty in training, recruiting and retaining EMTs to fill the approximately 1,000 paid and volunteer positions statewide.  They requested, as an incentive to recruitment and retention, that the Committee sponsor a bill to provide retirement benefits for EMTs as was done recently for fire fighters.  They distributed the following documents:

·         "2005 Wyoming Emergency Medical Services System Quick Stats" (Appendix 9);

·         Chart entitled "Years Ambulance Attendants are Certified" (Appendix 10);

·         Chart entitled "Age of Certified Ambulance Attendants" (Appendix 11);

·         Results of a survey of EMTs service provider numbers, training and funding (Appendix 12);

·         Chart showing numbers of full-time, part-time and volunteer EMTs by year from 2001 through 2005 (Appendix 13).

 

Committee members discussed the essential services provided by EMTs, the percentage of paid versus volunteer positions, the lack of uniformity in the industry and the potential cost of a retirement program for EMTs.

 

Senator Scott suggested, and the Committee approved by voice vote, that there should first be a bill for a study before the Committee proposes an EMT retirement program.  Senator Scott requested that staff draft a bill for consideration at the next meeting, with the bill having the following elements:

·         An actuarial determination of the costs of a retirement system covering full-time, part-time and volunteer EMTs;

·         Possible funding sources for a retirement system;

·         Whether the system should be a defined benefit or defined contribution plan;

·         Any differences between an EMT plan and the fire fighters' plan;

·         Whether the system should be part of an existing retirement plan or an entirely new plan;

·         Other recruitment and retention tools, whether administered by the Department of Health's Emergency Medical Services Office or other otherwise;

·         Availability of training grants for EMT candidates;

·         A report to the Committee by November 1, 2007.

 

Other Committee Business/next meeting

Susie Polliot, Wyoming Medical Society, advised the Committee regarding a program passed in the 2004 Special Session to provide enhanced Medicaid reimbursement for obstetrical services.  According to Ms. Polliot, obstetrical imaging services are not being paid at the enhanced rate because they are billed under an imaging code instead of an obstetrical code.  She advised that enhanced payments for imaging would add $2.4 Million to the program, and that the Department of Health will be requesting that amount through the regular budget process.

 

Chairman Scott noted that the Committee will be receiving significant studies and recommendations for legislation regarding Medicaid benefit redesign, quality childcare system implementation, specialty hospital regulation, health insurance for the uninsured non-poor and unemployment insurance federal compliance.

 

Following discussion, the Committee decided to meet again on December 5 and 6 in Cheyenne.

 

Meeting Adjournment

There being no further business, Co-Chairman Scott adjourned the meeting at 4:00 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

Senator Charles Scott, Co-Chairman

 

 

 

Representative Doug Osborn, Co-Chairman