10-4-11; Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission’s FY10 Annual report is now online. They also will need more time to recover approved settlement contracts

The IWCC has posted their most recent annual report on their website. The report shows the Illinois WC Commission is in a state of change as it implements House Bill 1698/Public Act 97-18.  New board members are in place, new administrators have come on board, and new arbitrator appointments are pending. 

We are going over it for you and will report when the analysis is complete. The best news is:

• Our workers’ compensation insurance industry is healthy and highly competitive. More insurance companies sell WC policies in Illinois than in 48 other states. The residual market is much smaller than average, meaning employers are able to purchase insurance with relative ease.

• WC claim filings have dropped from the peak of roughly 72,000 cases in FY95 to a mere 51,000 cases in FY10.

• Illinois' 2008 total injury rate was 60% lower than in 1990. We credit re-engineering of the work place and lots and lots of safety protocols where engineering was unavailable.

To view their annual report, go to http://www.iwcc.il.gov/annualreport10.pdf

In other news, the IWCC has advised all participants we need to allow more time when ordering copies of approved settlement contracts. Starting November 1, 2011, to improve security, the Commission will seal boxes of entered settlement contracts. Once a contract is entered into their computer system, the document will be sealed in a box and will be unavailable for the next 4-6 weeks.  Once the boxes have been logged in the Springfield archives, they should be able to retrieve them in 7-10 days. 

They are cautioning everyone to allow adequate time when requesting contracts.