{"id":20895,"date":"2017-02-28T11:43:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T17:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=20895"},"modified":"2017-03-03T10:49:02","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T16:49:02","slug":"bill-would-allow-nonelection-of-workers-compensation-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=20895","title":{"rendered":"Bill would allow nonelection of workers\u2019 compensation coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Business and Labor Committee heard testimony Feb. 27 on a bill that would allow individual employers to opt out of workers\u2019 compensation coverage.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sen. John Lowe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under LB553, introduced by Kearney Sen. John Lowe, any individual employer, partner, limited liability company member or self-employed person who is engaged full time in business who elects not to come under the Nebraska Workers\u2019 Compensation Act must file an acknowledgement with the Nebraska Workers\u2019 Compensation Court.<\/p>\n

Lowe said the bill would help clarify whether or not independent contractors carry workers\u2019 compensation coverage. This would help general contractors make better informed hiring choices, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen an independent contractor is injured while working for a third party, it\u2019s up to the workers\u2019 compensation court to determine if the third party\u2019s insurance would cover the injury,\u201d he said. \u201c[Under LB553] general contractors would know if an independent contractor has their own workers\u2019 compensation insurance before making a hiring decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonelection of coverage would not waive any rights or remedies available to the person in a civil action related to a personal injury suffered by the individual during employment.<\/p>\n

Anyone who elects to opt out of coverage may choose to rescind a nonelection acknowledgement at any time by filing a notice of termination with the court. Coverage would not apply to any injury sustained or disease incurred less than one week after the notice of termination is filed.<\/p>\n

Tom Champoux, representing the Independent Insurance Agents of Nebraska, supported the bill. He said when an independent contractor makes a workers\u2019 compensation claim under a third party\u2019s policy, it can lead to permanent premium increases for the third party\u2019s insurance coverage.<\/p>\n

Sen. Mark Kolterman, who owns an independent insurance agency in Seward, also testified in support of the bill, saying there has been uncertainty in this area of insurance law for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many years general contractors have ended up paying [for independent contractors],\u201d Kolterman said. \u201cThis bill is an easy solution to a long-term problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tad Frazier, representing the American Insurance Association, opposed LB553. Currently, individual employers and independent contractors must opt in to workers\u2019 compensation coverage. The bill, he said, could create legal confusion if someone opts out of coverage but does not file a nonelection of coverage form.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand the intent of this bill in trying to provide some exemptions, but it doesn\u2019t provide much clarity,\u201d Frazier said. \u201cEven though you\u2019re outside of coverage until you opt in, you have to declare that you\u2019re opting out. When you do terminate your declaration, you\u2019re still not under coverage until you opt in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Business and Labor Committee heard testimony Feb. 27 on a bill that would allow individual employers to opt out of workers\u2019 compensation coverage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[176],"class_list":["post-20895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-labor","tag-sen-john-lowe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/LB553Lowe2-27-17a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20895"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20974,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20895\/revisions\/20974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}