WORKERS' COMPENSATION WATCH
Make Sure Your Rights are Protected

Workers' compensation reform has gradually reduced Pennsylvania workers' right to benefits and increased the need for the worker to be informed about his rights under the Workers' Compensation Act. With the original passage of workers' compensation laws in 1915, workers were required to give up their right to sue their employer for pain and suffering from injuries caused by the employer. In return, employers were required to pay medical bills and two thirds of lost wages irrespective of whether the employer or the employee caused the injury.

Significant amendments limiting workers' rights began in 1972. The legislature passed regulations in 1972 that restricted workers' ability to appeal referees' decisions by changing the scope of review on appeal. With the amendments, a denial of a claim could not be reversed even where most of the facts supported a claim for benefits as long as some evidence, however minute, supported a dismissal of the claim.

In 1993, the legislature limited a worker's ability to treat with the workers' treating physician. The changes permitted an employer to request a review by a physician appointed and paid by the insurance company who was empowered to prohibit ongoing treatment. In 1994, hearing loss claims were eliminated in the situation where the worker did not learn that the hearing loss was work related until three years after the last day of employment with the hazardous noise.

Most recently, the legislature enacted the most dramatic of workers' compensation reform, Act 57 in 1996. The most damaging affect of Act 57 limited even severe, totally disabling and permanent injuries to ten years of wage loss benefits, and enabled insurance companies to suspend or reduce benefits based upon available employment in the local job market. Before Act 57, wage loss benefits could last indefinitely, and employers were required to provide actual employment before reducing payment of wage loss benefits.

These changes in workers' compensation law have increased the need for injured workers' to gain a basic understanding of the Workers' Compensation Act to protect rights which have been gradually decreasing since the original enactment of the Workers' Compensation Act. Upon sustaining an injury, it is strongly recommended that a worker seek consultation with an attorney who concentrates his practice in workers' compensation law and is familiar with the changes in the law and its affect on the working community.

G. Lawrence DeMarco

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