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SPONSOR: |
SCORC |
DATE TYPED: |
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HB |
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SHORT TITLE: |
Workers’ Comp Technical Revisions |
SB |
646/aSCORC |
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ANALYST: |
Gilbert |
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APPROPRIATION
Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring Or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
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FY03 |
FY04 |
FY03 |
FY04 |
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NFI |
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(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Relates/Conflicts with HB 505
LFC Files
Response
Received From
Workers’
Compensation Administration (WCA)
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of SCORC Amendment
The Senate Corporations and Transportation
Committee amendment to Senate Bill 646 makes non-substantive technical
corrections on page 4, line 21 and line 22 to clarify the definition of
“executive employee”.
Synopsis
of Original Bill
Senate Bill 646 amends
NMSA 1978, § 52-1-1.1, by making numerous technical revisions to the Workers’
Compensation Act. The bill also strikes
language that administratively attaches the Workers’ Compensation Administration (WCA) to
the Department of Labor (DOL).
Significant
Issues
The technical revisions made in SB 646 are
outlined below:
q Revisions
to Section 2 remove an inconsistency between this section and §52-1-6.
q Section
3 revisions clarify that the provisions of §52-1-7 apply to limited liability
companies as well as corporations.
q Section
4 clarifies the deadline for the first payment of indemnity benefits to a
worker.
q Section
5 amends the scheduled injury provisions to clarify that the reference in subsection
C is to subsection A injuries.
q Section
6 allows out of state employers to be subject to the same range of sanctions currently
available for in-state employers for failure to maintain mandatory workers’ compensation
insurance.
q Section
9 allows access to Motor Vehicle Division records concerning ownership of vehicles
and identities of licensed drivers to facilitate enforcement of the mandatory
insurance requirement.
q Section
10 increases the threshold for consolidation of benefit payments into quarterly
installments from $25 to $50.
q Section
11 corrects an inadvertent reference to the superintendent of insurance, left
over from the 1990 reforms, in the group self-insurance section of the Act.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
According to the WCA, the clarifications
contained in this bill would eliminate several areas of confusion, thus resulting
in a more efficient workers’ compensation system.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
The Workers’
Compensation Advisory Council reviewed and approved the language in this bill
effecting the workers’ compensation system.
The prior Council had
a series of public meetings during the summer of 2002, where legislative
proposals for this session were discussed.
At the Council’s request, proposals involving changes to workers'
compensation benefits were analyzed for their costs by the Workers'
Compensation Administration research staff, the National Council on
Compensation Insurance and New Mexico Mutual Casualty Company.
Section 5 of SB 646 is
not consistent with the repeal of the scheduled injury provisions proposed in
HB 505
RLG/prr:sb:yr