Rep. Schmidt floor speech on bill to increase incentives in Stay at Work Program, passes House 97-0

I am very uh proud to bring this bill forward today um prior to running for office I actually worked in the workers comp Arena working with claims management and I saw when the stay atw work program went into place this is about 10 years ago um what a positive um benefit it was to employers and employees it was very structured in the way that employees were offered um light duty jobs and it also offered that the employer would receive a portion of their um wages back from the state and this was all paid for through a fund that came out of the Medical Aid fund um it was very positive it had uh great results we can you know hear from elen the people the number of workers that have returned to work to the job of injury since this program has went into place has been astounding um with that this bill is actually going to increase the incentives so right now we have you can an employer would be eligible for reimbursement for wages uh up to $10,000 or 66 days we're going to expand that to $25,000 or 10 in five days which is really more appropriate because the average injured worker that's going to be on a light duty job is usually about 90 days so that way we'll make sure and cover the time that they're in that uh light duty position it also includes some some of the um other benefits as far as like clothing and uh computer equipment things like that that we would need for those light duty jobs just brings it up to today's dollars I'm very um very proud to commend this legislation to you today Madam speaker