Kessler wants public hearing on BrickStreet

Press Release

A floodtide of complaints, coming from both the business community and injured workers alike, has convinced a Raleigh County legislator that the 2008 session should devote some time to a hearing to air BrickStreet's laundry in public and to answer myriad questions surrounding the privatization of the troubled workers' compensation system.

Delegate Mel Kessler has accelerated his criticism of the new system in recent months, and now feels it's time the Legislature steps in and gives all interested parties an opportunity to question BrickStreet.

What's more, the Democratic lawmaker is seeking the formation of a special committee to continue a study of workers' compensation in the style of one that has been working during this year's interims. So far, however, the feedback from the leadership is for a judiciary subcommittee already at work to study workers' compensation without a second one organized in the winter session.

Of 40 claimants who have contacted him since he initially began to question the new system, Kessler said he has managed to get help for four of them, leaving 36 others in limbo.

"I want them to give me a list of everybody I've turned into them," Kessler said. "I want them to give me a status report.

"I want them to tell me who's handling the claim and what progress we've made. I know the claimants are not always right, but they're not always wrong, either."

If Kessler doesn't see some progress being achieved in those claims, the freshman lawmaker says he intends to seek a bad-faith clause installed in the system when the regular session opens in January.

Kessler said the new system allows BrickStreet to appeal to the state Supreme Court if an injured worker wins at the initial level, and by imposing a surcharge on employer premiums, it means that taxpayers wind up paying for cases that end up before the high court.

"I know of cases where people have gone to the Supreme Court to get their medicine," the delegate said.

"You and I wouldn't care to pay a little bit more taxes. I wouldn't, if the thing were being handled right and everyone was taking a fair share out of the pot, and they weren't visiting other funds and taking money out, and putting on the Coal Bowl, having Ricky Skaggs concerts and 432 dinners, and then going to Glade Springs. That's just blatant abuse of the system. If they need to meet these people (consultants), pick a less expensive spot."

Kessler acknowledged the Legislature was compelled to reform the system, given its top-heavy indebtedness, but says the spending by BrickStreet, including plans for a new $20 million complex, is simply "government gone wild."

"I've gotten phone calls from people crying," he said of the claimants who contacted him this summer. "They can't move. In bed."

Some complaints have surfaced within the business community over the higher rates that have been imposed when the system enlarged its number of classifications from 94 to some 577. Moreover, he said, companies are miffed about frequent audits.

"Some are getting audited every three months," Kessler said. "Their classifications are getting changed. Obviously, some of them feel like that they're paying way too much in premiums."

A woman who owns a design firm in Princeton advised Kessler she simply cannot stay in business under the new arrangement with BrickStreet, the lawmaker said.

While premiums overall might have fallen 27 percent, Kessler said the lower rates have affected larger firms, such as coal installations, while small businesses are suffering.

"And they're the backbone of West Virginia's economy," he said.

Kessler said he understood BrickStreet's stated mission is to rehabilitate workers so they can return to gainful employment, but with one coal worker, this simply isn't true. The man worked in the mines since he was 15, except for a tour of duty with the Marines, but after slate toppled on him and crushed his shoulder, the man was denied corrective surgery.

"He said they were giving him his check, giving him his medication, his doctor appointments, but they won't approve surgery," Kessler said.

"I'm surprised. The guy is 52 years old. With what he was used to making versus what he's making now, he wasn't happy. He wasn't ready to retire. I thought that was their purpose — get people rehabilitated and back to work. A huge amount of people just want surgery to go back to work, and they can't get the surgery. I reckon that's going to cut into these administrators' salaries if they start giving them surgery."

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