Draft
Minutes
Permanent Total Disability Committee
June 28, 2012
 

Members present: Mr. Aiello, Mr. Beiriger, Ms. Connor, Mr. Kent  

Staff present: Mr. Gennrich, Ms. Goetz

Others present: Mr. Redman, Mr. Declercq

  1. Call to Order/Introductions:  Mr. Aiello convened the Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council (WCAC) Permanent Total Disability Committee meeting at approximately 10:00 a.m. in accordance with Wisconsin’s open meetings law.  Committee and staff members introduced themselves and then Mr. Aiello read Section 30 of SB409.  
     
  2. Scope of Project/Committee Charge:  There was a discussion of the committee’s scope and charge in light of the WISBF and the issue of PTD claimants and the current 10 year lag vis-à-vis a six year lag.  It was agreed that the committee can make recommendations to the WCAC as a whole and that the WCAC can either file, reject, accept or modify the recommendations coming out of this committee.  There was a discussion about the desire to get a permanent fix to the PTD issue, rather than having the WCAC look at the issue again and again every two years, as has been done in the past.  There was also a discussion of the definition of PTD and this led into a conversation about research items that the department could execute and then report back on to the committee.  
     
  3. Research/Analysis Needs:  The committee settled upon various research items that the department is to complete before the next meeting.  The research items are:  
    • A count of the statutory PTD cases coming into the WC Division.  This would commence on a date forward basis.
    • A count of litigated claims coming into the WC Division with PTD as a declared issue and then a count of how many of these settle as something other than PTD.  This would commence on a date forward basis.
    • A count of claims that are or were in litigation on the WC Division database, going back 10 years, for which PTD was a declared issue.  NOTE: there was some discussion about what denominator should be used in order to make this count meaningful.  It was suggested that Mr. Aiello speak with Mr. Lee Shorey and get his opinion.  Mr. Aiello agreed to do this, and also stated that he would speak with Mr. Dwight Poore, who was a former supervisor in the WC Division and is very knowledgeable about the WC Division database.
    • A list of jurisdictions and how they determine which claimants are and are not PTD.
    • A cross match of PTD claimants in the WC Division database with the Unemployment Insurance SUITES database in order to determine who, if any, had wages reported in the past four full quarters.  This list would group claimants by age into 10 year brackets, e.g. 65 – 56, 55 – 46, etc.
    • A list of jurisdictions that have some sort of Fund [similar to the WC Division’s Work Injury Supplemental Benefit Fund].
    • A brief description of how other jurisdictions fund their PTD claimants.
    • Of the jurisdictions that have a COLA or Index for their PTD claimants, a brief description of how these function.
       

  4. Timeline/Format of Future Meetings:  The committee members asked Mr. Aiello how long he thought it would take for the department to successfully complete the research items.  He stated that it would probably take about two and one half months.  It was decided that the committee would meet again after the next full WCAC meeting.  Mr. Aiello said that he would have meeting requests sent to the members for sometime in the last two weeks of September.

  5. Adjourn:  The meeting was adjourned shortly before 1:00 pm.


    Next Meeting:  not scheduled yet.