Senate Approves Workers’ Compensation Reform Bill : Legislature: Overwhelming vote may signal an end to years of partisan paralysis. Negotiators will address conflicts with measure OKd by Assembly.

Republican and Democratic senators teamed up Thursday to vote overwhelming 30-5 approval to a workers’ compensation reform bill designed to reduce insurance premiums of California employers by at least $800 million next year, half of which would finance improved benefits for injured workers.

The vote suggests that after years of partisan paralysis, the Legislature finally may be willing to enact reforms in the troubled $11-billion-a-year workers’ compensation insurance program.

On Monday, the Assembly, in a rare unanimous vote on a major issue, approved its version of a massive overhaul of the program, whose costs to employers are among the highest in the nation and whose benefits to employees are among the lowest. The state-mandated program pays workers who are injured on the job.

Together, the actions by the two houses demonstrated a willingness to overcome years of paralysis on this issue.

Employers have cited the soaring costs of their workers’ compensation premiums as a major reason that economic expansion has been stymied in California.

In the Legislature, plans call for the conflicting Assembly and Senate reform bills to be negotiated by a conference committee, probably this summer. In the past, efforts at reform often occurred in the final hectic nights of the legislative session and got snagged in partisan wars.

Sen. Patrick Johnston (D-Stockton), an expert on workers’ compensation insurance issues and author of the bill passed by the Senate on Thursday, said he was encouraged that Senate Democrats and Republicans put aside traditional partisanship to “support real reform in this legislative session.”

Likewise, Republican Sen. Bill Leonard of Upland the GOP’s lead spokesman on workers’ compensation, endorsed the Senate plan as a compromise supported by some business segments. But he warned that GOP support would vanish if the projected $800 million in premium savings is diluted when the bill returns to the Senate for a final vote.

“A lot of the business community was very reluctant to support this because previously (promised) savings never materialized,” Leonard warned.

Senate Republican Leader Ken Maddy of Fresno, however, voted against the bill. He said he wanted no part of “another fraud” such as he said occurred in 1989 when employers were promised savings but none occurred. He noted that injured workers did receive improved benefits.

Another opponent, Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), a supporter of organized labor, charged that the bill’s complex redistribution of savings and benefits would work against the interests of injured workers. “It’s a net loss to workers, a net gain to business, and that’s just not a fair deal,” he said.

The proposed savings in premiums to employers would result from a variety of mechanisms aimed at powerful special interests that benefit from the existing system, including forensics physicians, insurance companies, vocational rehabilitation specialists and attorneys who represent workers.

For example, one of the most expensive segments of the program involves rehabilitating or retraining injured employees so they can return to productive work, often an open-ended process. These workers receive up to $246 a week in a maintenance allowance.

The bill would require disabled trainees to pay a portion of the cost of rehabilitation services from their disability award. Further, the legislation would limit the cost of rehabilitation services to $10,000 and restrict rehabilitation services to 52 weeks.

On the flip side, certain benefits would be increased. For example, payments for temporary disability and permanent total disability would be raised to $385 a week from $336, at a cost of about $200 million a year.