Oklahoma weighs worker’s comp opt-out bill

A debate in Oklahoma over legislation that would let employers leave the state’s workers compensation system could spill over to other states that are striving to contain insurance costs, sources say. The issue is being led by large, multistate employers that have seen cost savings under Texas’ nonsubscriber system for workers comp, and hope to achieve the same benefits in Oklahoma.


Oklahoma H.B. 2155 and S.B. 1378 would establish an alternative workers comp system that would allow certain employers to exempt themselves from the state system. The plan would require employers opting out to establish a substitute plan- including medical, disability and death benefits for injured workers- that meets Employee Retirement Income Security Act requirements. Only “qualified employers” with 50 or more employees that have exceeded certain thresholds for workers comp losses would be exempted. Those thresholds include an experience modification greater than 1 or total annual incurred claims above $50,000 in one of the last 3 years.

The bottom line here is this- whether you call it Worker’s Comp or an alternative system that protects the injured worker for health, disability and death causes, you will still have costs fairly equal for both. What it really comes down to is reducing your claims and mitigating those claims that you do have. Until that is accomplished, this issue is more of a political football than anything else. Rates are extremely high in Oklahoma, and for good cause. I find the attention to safety, hiring practices, and handling claims in Oklahoma to be very lax compared to businesses in Arkansas. They are not paying attention to details and have given up trying to deal with them in general.

I would assume that if many of the large employers in Oklahoma leave the Worker’s Comp system, the program will get even worse, not better for everyone else. It seems to me that, just like the healthcare system in this country, we are attacking the wrong end of the problem. Why don’t we find ways to reduce and mitigate claims for worker’s instead of trying to change the mechanism that pays for the claims? The situation is the same in Healthcare- why don’t we try to show people how to be healthier and learn to prevent all the health problems instead of trying to change the payer system that supports these health problems?

I guess I would have to be a politician to be able to answer that, wouldn’t I?

Bobby Bland PWCA, CIC
Commercial Risk Service