BIW files suit against workers’ board

PORTLAND – Bath Iron Works is taking the state Workers’ Compensation Board to court, saying the panel is 14 years late in coming up with a list of allowable fees for medical procedures and hospital stays.

In a suit filed Wednesday in Kennebec County Superior Court, BIW says sweeping workers’ comp reforms of 1992 called for the board to establish a list of fees for various medical costs by Jan. 1, 1993.

The board approved a list of fees for doctor visits four years after the deadline, but it has yet to come up with a list of fees covering items such as operating rooms, hospital beds or other hospital services and equipment.

Because there is no fee schedule for those items, BIW – which pays the cost of workers’ compensation itself because it is self-insured – says it has to pay the “usual and customary fee” for those services. In most cases, that’s higher than the fee charged to health insurance companies, which typically negotiate lower fees with hospitals and other health care providers.

Paul Dionne, executive director of the workers’ comp board, said a fee schedule for hospitals and surgical centers has never even come up for a vote because of a deadlock on the board and the inability to reach consensus.

The lawsuit, he said, will change that.

“It will come back to the board – and the lawsuit ensures that it will come back to the board,” he said.

BIW spokesman Jim DeMartini declined comment, saying the complaint would stand as the company’s statement.

The lawsuit comes amid a fundamental shift in workers’ compensation costs.

The cost of medical treatment for injured workers used to be dwarfed by the cost of replacing a worker’s lost wages. But now, medical costs make up more than half of all workers’ compensation costs.

If BIW’s lawsuit is successful, a fee schedule for hospitals, adopted by the board, could help cap the fastest-growing part of workers’ comp costs.

“I’ve been hearing this from employers for a while, that medical costs [of workers’ comp] are an increasing concern,” said Peter Gore, senior governmental affairs specialist for the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. “The workers’ comp board has not addressed the situation.”