Workers Comp Insurance on Federal Exchanges – A Future Possibility?
Would Workers Comp Insurance work on Federal exchanges? Workers Compensation has followed health insurance with an approximately 10-year lag.
Obamacomp was a term first coined on this blog a few years ago. One has to wonder how much of a stretch it would be to also include WC in the federal insurance exchanges once they are properly established this and next year. Could we be discussing Obamacomp right alongside Obamacare in the near future?
The Federalization of Workers Comp has already begun with the CMS approving the settlement of claims that reach certain thresholds. The Federal Insurance Office (FIO) has already started analyzing the Workers Comp markets.
One twist on this would be to have only the medical portion of the claims to be included in some type of medical treatment insurance exchange with the indemnity portion of the claim left to the states to handle. After all, there are already interstate Experience Mod ratings. There are endless variations and possibilities once the state or federal exchanges are working properly.
Would this cause the death of Workers Comp as we know it? That is not a likely possibility, however, it could be one of the factors that would cause a very large change in the way that WC is underwritten and handled today.
The House of Representatives has been pushing for a federal insurance license procedure for a few years. The procedure that the House is now considering also includes adjusters and risk managers in its language. Could an agent cherry-pick certain states that were more profitable by having a federal license?
There are so many questions without a good answer yet. Considering the likelihood that changes are coming to most insurance systems is one way to prepare along with being flexible.
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