On Tuesday, June 14, 2005, a diverse group of employers, insurance companies and trade associations gathered to discuss the new workers' compensation legislation. This coalition, now dubbed the Tuesday Working Group, formed in order to address the needs of the employer community in relationship to implementation of the new legislation and to formulate a long-term legislative and regulatory strategy.

The underlying concept behind the Tuesday Working Group is to link the workers compensation expertise contained in the employer community to the regulatory and legislative processes here in Illinois. We have a three part strategy: Part one is to interface with Commission regarding rulemaking, appointments, and implementation of the fee schedule and utilization review procedures, part two is to identify common issues across the employer coalition and pursue any needed legislative initiatives, and part three is to coordinate and pursue an amicus agenda regarding case law here in Illinois.

The coalition is made up of self-insured employers, insurance companies, industry experts, and management trade associations. We are dedicated to the idea of fostering an open discussion of issues and needs in the employer community and communicating those ideas to our trade associations, General Assembly, and the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission. We have no dues and we are not organized in any formal or legal manner, rather, the Group provides a forum for both private and public sector employers to work on improving our workers’ compensation system.