SB 536

This bill makes various changes to the worker's compensation law, as

administered by the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) and the Division

of Hearings and Appeals (DHA) in the Department of Administration.

General coverage

Local governmental units

This bill changes the term "municipality" to "local governmental unit" for

purposes of the worker's compensation law and redefines that term to mean a

political subdivision of this state; a special purpose district or taxing jurisdiction in

this state; an instrumentality, corporation, combination, or subunit of any of the

foregoing; or any other public or quasi-public corporation. Under current law, cities,

villages, towns, and counties are political subdivisions of this state; special purpose

districts include school districts, sewer districts, drainage districts, and other

districts created for special purposes; and taxing jurisdictions are entities, not

including the state, that are authorized by law to levy property taxes.

Long-term care providers

This bill provides that an individual who is performing services for a person

receiving long-term care benefits under certain long-term care programs

administered by the Department of Health Services, including the Community

Options Program, the Community Integration Program, Family Care, the Family

Care Partnership Program, a self-directed program commonly referred to as IRIS,

or the Children's Long-Term Support Home and Community-Based Medicaid

Waiver Program, on a self-directed basis and who does not otherwise have worker's

compensation coverage for those services is considered to be an employee of the entity

that is providing financial management services for the person who is receiving the

benefits. As such, the financial management services entity is liable for any injury

sustained by the individual while performing those services and is required to insure

payment of that liability either by purchasing insurance from an insurer authorized

to do business in this state or, if permitted by DWD, by self-insuring for that liability.

The bill also prohibits an individual providing long-term care services who is

considered an employee of a financial management services entity for purposes of

worker's compensation coverage and who files a claim for worker's compensation

from bringing an action in tort against the person who received the long-term care

services from which the claim arose.

Payment of benefits

Violations of employer drug or alcohol policies

This bill provides that if an employee violates an employer policy against drug

or alcohol use and such violation is causal to the employee's injury, then neither the

employee nor the employee's dependents may receive, under the worker's

compensation law, any compensation, including the death benefit, relating to that

injury. The bill specifies, however, that this provision does not reduce or eliminate