The 4,000-member Injured Workers Association of Utah wants Gov. Mike Leavitt to veto HB249, passed by the Legislature in the recent session, because it hasn't had public scrutiny and because threats of criminal complaints will dampen an injured workers' desire to seek workers compensation benefits.
Patrick J. O'Connor, association president, said he is willing to meet with Leavitt to answer questions about the impact the legislation will have on the 80,000 people injured in Utah annually.O'Connor called HB249 a poorly drafted and ill-conceived piece of legislation "which has surreptitiously avoided public scrutiny through the open and public meeting process and Workers Compensation Advisory Council analysis and formal approval.
"However, the greatest indictment is that it creates criminal sanctions for certain courses of conduct for only a portion of the members of the public, which further places the constitutionality of the statute in great doubt," he wrote.
Designed to prevent fraud in workers compensation claims, HB249 wasn't submitted to the Advisory Council for recommendations. O`Connor is an Advisory Council member.
He said the medical community hasn't made any recommendations on the bill. "We are also concerned that the threat of criminal sanctions for fraud will be used as an unfair leverage against injured, disabled workers who are uneducated in the complexities of workers compensation laws who may decide not to pursue or decline to pursue further, perfectly valid and compensable claims because of improper threats by insurance carriers to consider criminal prosecution for which the act provides no meaningful remedies whatsoever," the letter said.
"Our association challenges anyone to explain or define in simple terms what the proposed legislation is designed to do; and, whatever the explanation is, it becomes readily clear that the language chosen to accomplish it is overly complex, ambiguous and garbled," O'Connor wrote.