North Carolina Industrial Commission Rule Changes
The North Carolina Industrial Commission is performing a major “tweaking” to the current rules. The Commission had a public hearing on the new rules. This is a transcript of the public hearing. The August 6th public hearing transcript may take a few minutes to download. It is well worth the read.
If you have any comments on the new rules, you can email them to [email protected]. All of the written comments that have been received by the NCIC can be found here through September 6th. The deadline for written comments is September 14th.
I noticed in the comments that both the defense and plaintiff attorneys seem to like the 2000 rules changes better than the ones published. Defense attorney George Lennon’s comments are some of the better ones.
The one that stands out to me is trying to shorten the time limits to paying medical bills. Trying to shorten the time limit to 30 days is not going to help anyone. The verbal and written comments point this very fact out very clearly. The statute says 60 days, so which is correct?
The rules seem to center around the handling of medical bills, rehabilitation nurses, and vocational rehabilitation specialists. If you work in these areas, or if your job or company is affected by the rule changes, emailing your written comments may be a good idea.
Some of the comments seem to be another form of advertising while others do point out some additional changes that may need to be made to work in a Workers Comp environment. We all have seen the Financial Impact statements. This one says the new rules will save a large amount of money.
I am wondering if a rule conflicts with a statute, which one wins out?
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