Wisconsin lawmakers are digging into Assembly Bill 651, a workers’ compensation package that tweaks payout caps, tightens procedural rules, and updates long standing definitions around evidence, limits, and injury categories.
The whole thing comes from the Wisconsin Workers’ Compensation Advisory Council’s negotiated deal, which usually sets the tone for legislative action.
Andrew Franken of the Wisconsin Insurance Alliance called it one of those classic Wisconsin processes that keeps the market steady. We think he’s right, because the council spent a full year hammering out the details.
Franken said the insurance side and lawmakers both see the agreement as reliable. Maybe that’s why the bill landed with so little drama.
AB 651 bumps the maximum weekly rate for permanent partial disability to $464 for injuries before Jan. 1, 2027.
Then it dips slightly to $462 for injuries after that date. Odd sequencing, but not unheard of when timelines and old rate tables collide.
The bill also pushes supplemental benefit availability forward to Jan. 1, 2020, from the previous Jan. 1, 2003 cutoff. That shift helps workers with total or continuous temporary total disability. Insurers have to move their reimbursement requests to electronic submissions, which feels overdue in 2025.
Compromise claim agreements get a makeover too. Payments can go straight to the worker instead of routing through a bank account.
When the Department of Workforce Development signs off on an agreement, it needs to dismiss all pending hearing applications and close the matter outright. Clean ending, fewer loose threads.
The legislation also bars treating compromise payments as advance payments. Right now, the department can direct advance payments for unaccrued benefits, but AB 651 closes that door in these specific cases.
Statutes of limitation get sharper lines. The state’s 12 year period for filing a claim cannot be tolled. AB 651 also adds traumatic injuries that require shoulder replacement or reverse shoulder replacement to the list of injuries with no statute of limitation.
Total or partial knee and hip replacements and artificial spinal discs already live on that list. If the injury demands that level of invasive hardware, the clock doesn’t run.
Evidence rules tighten but also modernize. Certain certified reports from physician assistants and registered nurses become admissible for diagnosis, treatment necessity, cause, and disability extent.
Right now, the law only allows diagnosis and treatment necessity. Opening the door wider saves time, maybe money, maybe headaches.
To keep the docket from cluttering up, the bill instructs the department to dismiss any claim without prejudice if it doesn’t present a justiciable controversy. In plain speak, no real dispute means no case.
AB 651 also updates how post traumatic stress claims work for first responders and adjusts penalties for companies running without insurance.
According to our analysts, this piece may have the biggest long term impact because PTSD rules keep evolving fast.
The bill landed in the Assembly Committee on Workforce Development, Labor and Integrated Employment and had its hearing on Nov. 13.
Both labor groups and the chamber of commerce voiced support. It’s rare when everyone in Wisconsin’s comp world nods in the same direction, but here we are. Maybe a sign lawmakers won’t drag this one out.
