2017 -- S 0774

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LC002301

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2017

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S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

RESPECTFULLY REQUESTING THAT THE RHODE ISLAND DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

AND TRAINING CREATES A “RETURN TO WORK” PLANNING GROUP TO STUDY

THE POSSIBILITY OF DEVELOPING A HYBRID TEMPORARY DISABILITY

INSURANCE PROGRAM SIMILAR TO THE STATE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION

PROGRAM THAT FACILITATES TREATING AND REHABILITATING WORKERS WITH

MEDICAL CONDITIONS THAT WERE NOT CAUSED BY WORK

     Introduced By: Senators Seveney, DiPalma, Coyne, and Calkin

     Date Introduced: April 12, 2017

     Referred To: Senate Labor

     WHEREAS, Nationally, millions of American workers leave the labor force every year,

at least temporarily, because of the onset of significant health conditions; and

     WHEREAS, Although only some of these conditions are caused by work, all of them

disrupt workers' ability to perform their jobs for some period of time; and

     WHEREAS, When these health conditions are, unfortunately, not attributable to work

activities, they often incur financial devastation to both the individual and their family; and

     WHEREAS, Without steady earnings, these workers and their families often face

economic hardship; and

      WHEREAS, Some workers end up losing their jobs and qualifying for public programs,

such as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI),

Medicare, and Medicaid, all of which require taxpayer funding and offer little or no hope of

change, thus increasing the burden upon our already strained social safety net; and

     WHEREAS, The challenge for policymakers is to determine how to best design, test,

implement, and finance initiatives that will effectively treat, rehabilitate and return individuals to

work quickly, thus reducing job loss and increasing workforce retention, therefore benefitting all

stakeholders; and

     WHEREAS, These workers, their families, their employers, and taxpayers could all

potentially gain substantial net benefits from initiatives that help such workers stay in or return

quickly to the labor force; and

      WHEREAS, The Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work Policy Collaborative, through its multi-

year research, has shown that adopting a state-based program similar to those available to

workers' compensation claimants with compensable injuries has improved functional outcomes

and increased workforce retention; and

     WHEREAS, In 1942, Rhode Island enacted the nation's first employee funded temporary

disability insurance program, ("TDI"), a program designed to protect insured workers against

wage loss resulting from non-work related illness or injury; and

     WHEREAS, The "Return to Work" planning group should consider national best

practices that:

     • Facilitate collaboration among providers, employers, labor organizations, and the

Temporary Disability Fund to optimize medical and employment outcomes for workers with non-

compensable conditions;

     • Implement near the outset of disabling episodes a set of best practices in multi-

stakeholder communications and coordination that protect against adverse consequences and

needlessly prolonged disability;

     • Ensure systematic adherence to these best practices by creating optimum treatment

protocols as well as financial incentives and data analysis capability to track and give feedback to

participants on actual activities and outcomes;

     • Address the many behavioral bottlenecks that can stand in the way of achieving medical

recovery and return to work outcomes for non-workers' compensation claimants; and

     • Ensure maximally effective use of services and supports are available in the absence of

workers' compensation, without providing fundamentally new services and supports; and

     WHEREAS, The "Return to Work" planning group's ultimate goal should be to

promulgate a plan that would substantially reduce lost work time and long-term disability for

non-compensable claimants while more than paying for itself through lower TDI and social

support expenditures; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

hereby respectfully requests that the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training creates a

"Return to Work" planning group to study the possibility of developing a hybrid temporary

disability insurance program similar to the state's workers' compensation program that facilitates

treating and rehabilitating workers with medical conditions that were not caused by work; and be

it further

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     RESOLVED, That this Senate hereby respectfully requests that the Director of the Rhode

Island Department of Labor and Training reports the working group's results to the Senate

President on or before March 31, 2018; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to Mr. Scott R. Jensen, Director, Rhode Island

Department of Labor and Training.

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LC002301

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