By Gil Spruance – Special to the Voice News
The recent Florida legislative session made significant changes to the workers compensation law and the rehabilitation/reemployment of injured workers. Many QRPs are asking how these changes will affect them in the near future, and what the long term implications will be.
As a rehabilitation counselor for 30 years, working within the workers compensation environment, I follow legislative changes to evaluate how I will do business in the future. Each and every legislative change over the past 30 years has affected my business one way or another.
The new law can be found at:
SB 2150 http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2011/2150/BillText/er/PDF The entire document is 71 pages, but the workers compensation section (440.491) is only pages 11-20. If approved by the Governor, these provisions take effect July 1, 2011.
Vote: Senate 35-3; House 89-29
The Senate summarizes the changes (to the workers compensation law) as follows:
Repeals certain responsibilities of the Department of Education for monitoring rehabilitation providers and services; repeals rehabilitation provider qualifications. These changes, overall, will not significantly affect my business, but will make doing business in the workers compensation environment a little easier.
The first significant change is the fact that BRRS will no longer regulate carriers or rehabilitation counselors (formerly known as QRPs). The QRP Directory will no longer exist, and the bi-annual QRP renewal process will no longer be required. However, the essence of the credential remains intact. To work as a Rehabilitation Provider (RP – new term) requires one of the following: CRRN, CRC, CCM, CDMS, CVE or COHN. It is still a law that all Reemployment Assessments and Reemployment Services be provided by RPs only. And it is still a law that the same RP cannot do both, unless an RP had been involved in the case within the first 60 days of injury. Also, the recent rule requiring electronic submission of the DWC-21 through the BRRS web portal will no longer be in effect.
In fact, the DWC-21 and all other DWC forms used by the rehabilitation community will no longer be required. (The DWC-21 has long been used by BRRS as a data gathering mechanism. BRRS will no longer be collecting this data). The carrier no longer has to report its voluntary service activity to BRRS, which they had been doing via the DWC-21.
When a RP completes a Reemployment Assessment (REA), there is no longer a requirement to send a copy to BRRS. However, if a carrier refers an injured worker to BRRS for training or education and has obtained a REA on their own, the carrier must submit the REA to BRRS at the time of referral.
There have been many changes made to BRRS which will now be under the Department of Financial Services, rather than the Department of Education. BRRS no longer writes rules governing professional practices and standards, with regard to reemployment services voluntarily provided by the carrier through the private sector. BRRS will continue to provide training and education to the injured workers in the state, as they have been doing for many years.
Ed. Note: Gil Spruance, MS, CRC, CCM, CVE, CLCP, MSCC is President, Spruance & Associates, Inc., a privately held disability management firm. He has been a rehab counselor in Florida since 1979 and is a member of the National Association of Rehabilitation Professional (IARP).
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