Oklahoma Worker’s Compensation laws require employers to have workers compensation insurance. This insurance is to protect workers in the event of on the job injuries.  This is no fault insurance and it replaces the option of suing your employer for negligence. The no-fault clause clause makes it easier and quicker to recover basic damages. Those damages include medical costs and lost income as a result of the work injury.  Moreover, the law protects injured workers by requiring the employers insurance carrier to provide all reasonable and necessary medical treatment.

Also, if you are not able to return to work the insurance provider is required to pay you temporary disability. These are the basic tenets of The new Workers Compensation Act. However, as written there are several loopholes to coverage. We expect several challenges to the law. The challenges to the new work injury law will take some time depending on which part receives a challenge. One such challenge is to the so called ‘opt out” provision.

The Opt Out Provision:

The Worker’s Compensation Act, as it was written allowed large companies to ‘opt out’ of Oklahoma work injury insurance. Further, to be a large company it must employ over 100 people. The opt out provision allows them to purchase private insurance. This alternative insurance requires approval by the Oklahoma Department of Insurance. This provision is called the Employee Injury Benefit Act and it provides an alternative to the strict enrollment requirements of the Oklahoma Worker’s Compensation Act. The benefits provided under private workers compensation insurance plans require equality to those under the Worker’s Compensation Act.

The problem is that given the nature of the insurance underwriting process, in certain instances, the restrictions as to who qualifies for benefits are more stringent and some people are denied benefits.  When you consider that under the act, employees have given up their right to file a law suit against their employer, it leaves the injured employee with few options if they are denied their claim by the employer’s private insurance carrier. Many argue that this difference in treatment is a basis for the challenge to the law.

Challenges To The OPT Out Provision:

 Two injured Oklahoma workers to filed a petition in February 2015. The petition is asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to declare the Oklahoma Employee Injury Benefit Act unconstitutional. Judy Pilkington and Kim Lee were both denied their claims for benefits by separate employers. Both employers have their own alternative worker’s comp plans, the lawsuit states. The target of the suit is the office of Oklahoma workers compensation that is responsible for ensuring that alternative insurance provides equal benefits equal to the Worker’s Compensation act.

If successful, new legislation will repeal or modify  the Employee Injury Benefit Act and reinstate the “no-fault” clause for all Oklahoma companies regardless of size, forcing insurance carriers to cover all legitimate employees claims. In this writers provision though the law as written is probably unconstitutional. The basis for this challenge is probably rooted in the equal protection requirement. If so, it is likely this will change.

Contact Our Wagoner Workers Compensation Attorneys:

Our Wagoner workers compensation attorneys keep abreast of the latest developments concerning injured Oklahomans. Hence this attention helps you to receive workers compensation under Oklahoma’s Workers’ Compensation Act. We will file your work injury claim within 24 hours and advance your work injury claim aggressively. If you would like a free consultation with one of our local Wagoner Workers Compensation attorneys please call us.