North Carolina HB 237 – Reporter Concern on Access
The North Carolina HB 237 is very important for enforcing the Workers Comp insurance requirement in the Tarheel State.
In the past week, Workers Compensation based North Carolina House Bill 237 – HB 237 – amendment was the subject of a few of my posts. One interesting point that was mentioned is the reporters were very concerned the Legislature was going to disallow access to the records that brought this whole matter to light in the first place.
Why would the Legislature add in what was basically a sealed record clause? In one of the links to an article in my prior posts on HB 237, the reporter even asked some of the legislators why this clause existed:
The North Carolina Industrial Commission shall take such steps, including obtaining software or software licenses, as are necessary to be able to receive and process such information from the Bureau. The records provided to the North Carolina Industrial Commission under this section shall be confidential and shall not be public records as that term is defined in G.S. 132-1.
The reporter was never really given a direct answer. A very small error can easily occur when any state or federal governing body is hammering out laws that are very specific to a situation.
Consulting with a Workers Comp expert on this matter may have avoided what could possibly be a veto of a great amendment in my opinion. Then again, this was more of an issue of privacy than a Workers Compensation issue.
Governor Perdue is still negotiating the NC budget. The amendments to HB 237 are still pending for her veto or approval. The original HB 237 from 2011 was a great start to Workers Compensation reform.
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