At the end of 2023 the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board (the Board) announced their plan to begin indexing every complete workers’ compensation case by mid-2024. We are writing today to inform you that process will begin shortly.
What does this mean for carriers? Every case with an Employee Claim (Form C-3) or First Report of Injury (FROI) and a medical report of treatment will be indexed by the Board. Additionally, following indexing, any denial of the claim must be filed with the Board within 25 days of the date of indexing or defenses listed in Workers’ Compensation Law Section 25(2)(b) will be barred.
Due to this indexing, we foresee an increase in workload for all carriers, third-party administrators and self-insurers due to a potential increase in claim denials. As the process moves forward, we have the following recommendations for our partners:
- All parties should ensure their adjusters are prepared for the possible influx of work. This means the examiners will need to review their cases and be timely in responding to each case to ensure the preservation of their right to deny a claim if proper and necessary.
- If there is no medical report in the file, we do not expect the case to be indexed.
- However, if there is a medical report in the case all parties need to ensure the examiner has had an opportunity to fully investigate the case and to have come to a determination as to whether to accept or deny it.
- Examiners should contact their defense counsel to collaborate on making final determinations.
- Carriers, third-party administrators, and self-insured employers should also attempt to gauge how many unindexed claims they have so they can determine if they need to dedicate a specific task force or team to this in the coming months.
For more information on this announcement or to collaborate on case denial or acceptance, please contact clientservices@jonesjonesllc.com.