IWCC Releases 2012 Fee Schedules

The IWCC stated at the December Medical Fee Advisory Board meeting that the Year 2012 rates would not be available until 12/31/11, but both the new rates and data specifications for downloading the rates are now available on the IWCC's website.

The IWCC updated the medical fee schedule lookup with the new 2012 hospital and non-hospital fee schedule regions.  Since the current and previous years' fee schedules are based on the geozip regions, they are still available under the Archived Fee Schedules 2006 through 2011 tab on the main screen.

Current fee schedule lookup



New fee schedule lookup

Both the IWCC's Rules and Instructions and Guidelines for treatment on or after 9/1/11 are still in process and not available at this time.  A draft version was presented at the December Medical Fee Advisory Board meeting, and at that time, the Secretary of the Commission, Kimberly Janas, requested comments on the draft version.

Arbitrator and 1/1/2012 Fee Schedule Updates

2012 Fee Schedule Region Update
The new IWCC fee schedule regions, and their recalculated fee schedule amounts, become effective on 1/1/2012.  The regions are moving from geozip-based to region/county-based. Per the IWCC Medical Fee Advisory Board's December meeting, the new fee schedule reprice amounts and finalized medical fee schedule lookup will not be publicly available until Saturday, 12/31/2011.

We are currently attempting to confirm the exact data file layout format, and if there will be any sort of geozip to region crosswalk, with Glen Boyle and the IWCC. 

Arbitrator Jutila's case reassignments
The IWCC updated its case reassignment schedule for January 2012.

Effective January 1, 2012, Arbitrator Jutila's cases will be reassigned among the three Region 6 arbitrators: Arbitrators Fratianni, Kinnaman, and O'Malley. Accordingly, the January call, scheduled for Dec. 29, has been cancelled. Corrected notices will be sent.

Send settlement contracts to either of the current Chicago arbitrators (in January, Arbitrator Fratianni or O'Malley). Arb. Williams will still hear Jutila cases during his December trial cycle.

Arbitrator Jutila Passed Away

The IWCC announced the passing of Arbitrator Jerry Jutila on Thursday:

We are sorry to announce that Arbitrator Jerry Jutila passed away today. Jerry joined the Commission as an arbitrator in 2004, served as acting chairman in 2008, then returned to his arbitrator position. He was widely respected as an intelligent, thoughtful, and fair person.

While he struggled with his illness, he worked on a document, "Lessons Learned on the Eighth Floor," intended to help train the new arbitrators. It was just distributed to arbitrators this past week.

Full of practical advice, writing tips, humor, and gentle guidance ("Listen to the other side." "We are public servants and have a duty to be helpful."), he told arbitrators, "At the end of the day, you are going to derive a great deal of satisfaction" from helping people resolve conflicts. The document is a fitting reflection of Jerry's character.

Before coming to the Commission, Jerry represented injured workers for decades, at the firms May, Decker and Associates; Collins, Jutila and Shovlain; and Gibson and Kopsick.

He was a Life Fellow of the Illinois State Bar Association since 1996 and was a member of numerous professional law associations.

Jerry was honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force Security Service, where he served as Staff Sergeant and Intelligence Analyst.

Our sympathies go to Jerry's wife, Barb, and their extended circle. His passing is an enormous loss.

IWCC December Updates

The IWCC's Medical Fee Advisory Board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 7 at 2pm.  Currently, the only identified topic of discussion on the agenda is a status update on the changes to the medical fee schedule. 

We did send an inquiry to Glen Boyle regarding the posting of the new fee schedule regions' rates on the IWCC website.  Per his response, the anticipated release timeframe should be the end of this week.  We will verify this is still the release schedule at the Board meeting on Wednesday.

IWCC issues impairment ratings to the arbitrators
The Commission voted to provide recommendations to its arbitrators regarding the use of the American Medical Association impairment ratings in the determination of permanent partial disability awards.

Section 8.1b of HB 1698/Public Act 097-0018 included the following language:

...The most current edition of the American Medical Association's "Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment" shall be used by the physician in determining the level of impairment.

The Commission issued a memo to arbitrators regarding the use of the AMA impairment ratings. It includes the following guidance:

1. An impairment report is not required to be submitted by the parties with a settlement contract. 
2. If an impairment rating is not entered into evidence, the Arbitrator is not precluded from entering a finding of disability.

NCCI's IWCC Presentation

On Wednesday, November 30, NCCI (National Council on Compensation Insurance, Inc) presented an overview of both the Illinois and national workers' compensation markets for the IWCC Advisory Board and Medical Fee Advisory Board. 

This presentation, by Terri Robinson and Karen Ayres, was a slightly condensed version of the 2011 Illinois State Advisory Forum report NCCI released in October at its Rosemont, IL meeting. 

During Wednesday's meeting, many of the questions and comments from the audience revolved around NCCI's recommended -8.8% advisory premium rate adjustment on 9/1/2011.  HB 1698/Public Act 097-0018 required NCCI to file revised rates and loss costs by September 1, and the Illinois Department of Insurance approved that rate reduction. 

According to the presentation, while NCCI stated that many of HB 1698's modifications to the workers' comp system should lower system costs, it could only quantify a few of those changes with the information available and the required deadline to recommend a new premium rate.  The actuaries at NCCI calculated that the following reforms would reduce the overall workers' compensation costs for Illinois by 8.8%:

• the 30% fee schedule reduction                     -7.4%
• the changes to the wage differential benefits   -0.8%
• the changes to PPD carpal tunnel benefits       -0.6%  

NCCI has also filed its annual rate update, a 3.5% increase, with the IDOI for 1/1/2012.  NCCI's 1/1/2012 rate updates for neighboring states: 

• Indiana:  +2.6%
• Iowa:  +4.4%
• Missouri:  -3.0%

While the Illinois rate increase is 3.5%, that number is misleading when compared to its neighboring states.  Unlike those states, the Illinois rate increase is calculated off the 9/1/2011 rates, rather than the 1/1/2011 rates. 

Taking into account the -8.8% reduction to the rates on 9/1/2011, the recommended 3.5% increase to the Illinois rates equate to a rate reduction of -5.3% from the 1/1/2011 rates for Illinois.

The full NCCI Illinois State Advisory Forum report is available on the NCCI website.