WELCOME TO ISIA ONLINE

The 2007 annual meeting of the Illinois Self-Insurers Association was held at the Marriott Lincolnshire Resort October 3-5. The meeting commenced with a golf outing on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 3, at the Marriott Lincolnshire Resort golf course. The golf outing participants enjoyed warm and beautiful weather- an afternoon of fun and camaraderie.

Thursday morning began with opening remarks in the ISIA business meeting by President Diane Pidgeon. Executive Secretary, Christopher Gibbons then delivered the potpourri of 2007 cases, and updated on Illinois case law involving workers’ compensation for the past year. We then heard from Maria Sarli-Dehlin, the Self Insurance Manager from the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. Ms. Sarli-Dehlin delivered an interesting report regarding the status of our State’s workers’ compensation self- insurance program and explained the details about how the program works. Ms. Sarli-Dehlin also introduced her staff to the membership.

The morning session then concluded with a fascinating presentation on utilization review from Brenda Gray, Senior Director of Occupational Health Services for Marriott International.

The ISIA then hosted a luncheon and Doug Whitley, President and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, delivered our key note address following a delicious lunch.
Mr. Whitley’s comments regarding the business climate in Illinois and the political situation in Springfield were insightful. Mr. Whitley would appear to have a bright future in politics should he pursue such a path.

Following lunch, the meeting resumed with a presentation from John Boyle, the Manager of Safety and Industrial Hygiene for Exelon Corporation. Mr. Boyle described his company’s safety program and use of metrics and communication in order to address injury reduction and prevention. The membership then turned its attention to issues of medicine. Dr. Russell Glantz, a neurologist, presented a fascinating presentation on the use of electro-diagnostic studies in workers’ compensation cases. Dr. Glantz gave us an indepth review of how EMG/NCV studies are used and how they are interpreted. His presentation was excellent. Finally, we heard from Dr. Michael Bednar, Associate Professor of Loyola University Medical Center. Dr. Bednar is a renowned hand surgeon and he delivered a fascinating presentation regarding advances in surgical care for traumatic hand injuries. Dr. Bednar, having the last speaker slot of the day, conquered any signs of on we by the participants with an entertaining and extremely interesting presentation. The general meeting then adjourned until the barbecue dinner that evening which was hosted by the ISIA and Athletico. The Board of Directors met the respondent representatives and the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission as well.

The meeting resumed Friday morning with a labor law update by Mary Ellen Cherry, Associate General Counsel for Advocate Healthcare. Ms. Cherry updated the membership and developments and labor law that interfaced with workers’ compensation issues as well. Her presentation was most informative. Finally, the membership participated in a town home meeting with Illinois legislators. Senators Terry Link (D), Qwame Raoul (D), Dan Cronin (R), and Representative Dan Brady (R), were in attendance. Bill Lowry led the town hall meeting where the membership discussed issues related to workers’ compensation in the state with the legislators. This meeting was fascinating in its frank discussion of the political realities in Illinois and the mechanisms of an acting workers’ compensation legislation. The legislators appeared quite pleased to have had the opportunity to interface directly with companies and hear of their experiences under the new workers’ compensation legislation.

The meeting then concluded with a prize drawings and adjournment. Participants left the meeting having enjoyed the opportunity to combine the educational opportunities with networking with colleagues and enjoyment of the fine facilities at the Lincolnshire Marriott.

Chairman Dennis Ruth is going to run for Judge in Madison County. The Madison County Democratic Party Central Committee has chosen Dennis Ruth to run for Circuit Judge in the Third Judicial Circuit. That seat will be vacant when current Circuit Judge Edward Ferguson retires at the end of his term.
Chairman Ruth is running unopposed and would likely be expected to take that seat at the end of 2008. The Illinois Self-Insurers Association wishes Chairman Ruth good luck in his next judicial endeavor.

In other Commission news, the 2008 Arbitration Calendars have been posted by the Commission. You can find them on the Commission website, www.iwcc.il.gov/news.htm. Downstate Arbitrators have now been provided with cell phones and their phone numbers are also present on the Commission website.

We have a number of arbitrator reassignments: Effective January 1, 2008, Arbitrator Giordano will take over Arbitrator Holland’s Rockford docket, Arbitrator Holland will take over the Clinton, Galesburg, Rock Falls, and Rock Island calls. Arbitrator Nalefski will handle the Carlinville docket and Arbitrator Falcioni will move to the DeKalb call.

Additionally, Arbitrator O’Malley in Chicago was also assigned to take over Arbitrator Lammie’s Wheaton docket and Arbitrator Lammie moved to Chicago to fill the role of the pro se arbitrator. Arbitrator Cronin was moved from being the pro se arbitrator to take over Arbitrator O’Malley’s docket.

The next Medical Fee Advisory Board meeting is scheduled for November 15, 2007. The Medical Fee Advisory Board has been working on issues involving rule making and notice forms. Also, the Commission is supposed to be working on improving the fee schedule to include more services under the fee schedule mechanism, rather than simply reimbursing services at 76% of charges. Hopefully, more information will be forthcoming on when these upgrades to the fee schedule will be made.

Fees for all workers’ compensation medical treatments subject to the fee schedule will be increased by 2% on January 1, 2008, as that is the percent increase in the consumer price index for the period August 2006 to August 2007.

You can also find the Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit’s first annual report here: Report.
The Fraud Department did hire four additional investigators this year. According to Ron Palmer, they are quite busy investigating many reported instances of fraud in our workers’ compensation system.