

Nearly two dozen major corporations, including Walmart, Nordstrom, and Safeway, are bankrolling a quiet, multistate lobbying effort to make it harder for workers hurt on the job to access lost wages and medical care—the benefits collectively known as workers' compensation.



The companies have financed a lobbying group, the Association for Responsible Alternatives to Workers' Compensation (ARAWC), that has already helped write legislation in one state, Tennessee. Richard Evans, the group's executive director, told an insurance journal in November that the corporations ultimately want to change workers' comp laws in all 50 states. Lowe's, Macy's, Kohl's, Sysco Food Services, and several insurance companies are also part of the year-old effort.



Businesses can save millions of dollars by opting out and writing plans with narrow benefits, putting pressure on their competitors to do the same. "It creates a race to the bottom," says Michael Clingman, a workers' advocate in Oklahoma, which passed an opt-out measure in January 2014. The state's oil and gas industry, along with major retailers, such as the craft store chain Hobby Lobby, pushed hard for the change—with help from a lobbyist, Steve Edwards, who now heads ARAWC's legislative strategy. Dillard's, a department store chain with 10 locations in Oklahoma, took advantage of the change by requiring workers to report injuries before the end of their shift to be eligible for workers' comp. Walmart and Dillard's declined to comment for this article.



ARAWC acknowledges that its goal is to slash health care spending. The group's Tennessee proposal, it boasts in a fact sheet, would "lower costs to employers" and allow businesses to "require more accountability from injured workers" by choosing their doctors and forcing them to stick to the company doctor's treatment plan to retain their benefits.



What’s ARAWC?



ARAWC is the Association for Responsible Alternatives to Workers’ Compensation. Our reform-minded group focuses on ensuring that employees receive the best possible care and employers have the choice to provide what is best for their employees. We call it an “Option.” [Source]



Tennessee may soon have its own answer to an alternative workers’ compensation insurance option through new legislation by Republican lawmakers known as the Tennessee Employee Injury Benefit Alternative.



Tennessee State Senator Mark Green and State Representative Jeremy Durham introduced Senate Bill 721 and House Bill 0997, respectively, last month. The legislation seeks to amend Tennessee’s current workers’ compensation requirements through a “free-market alternative to traditional workers’ compensation insurance offerings in the state,” according to the Association for Responsible Alternatives to Workers’ Compensation (ARAWC), which worked on the development of the bill with the lawmakers.



The not-for-profit group advocates in state legislatures for free market alternatives to workers’ compensation and is made up of companies like Nordstrom, Macy’s, and Wal-Mart, as well as insurers such as AmWINS and Great American.



Brent Buchanan, communications director of ARAWC, says the Tennessee Option, as it is being called, will create competition and give employers the ability to save money by creating a workers’ comp plan that is appropriate for their business.



Founding/Full Members

AmWINS

Big Lots Stores, Inc.

Brookdale

Combined Group

Dillard’s, Inc.

J. B. Hunt Transport, Inc.

Lowe’s Companies, Inc.

Nordstrom, Inc.

Macy’s

PartnerSource

Providence Risk & Insurance Services, Inc.

Safeway, Inc.

Sedgwick, Inc.

Sysco Corporation

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.



Sponsoring Members

Great American Insurance Company

Whole Foods

Associate Members

Brinker International

Highway Transport Logistics

Midlands



Friend Members

Daryl Flood Relocation & Logistics

OccMD



[Source]

edit on 3/27/2015 by ~Lucidity because: (no reason given)



Full article well worth a read, at link above.First they came for your unions. Then they came for your pensions. Then they shipped your jobs overseas.Then for those they couldn't ship overseas, they cut hours, kept wages unlivably low, and cut benefits, or made you work longer and harder for less money.Now if you get hurt for them they want to control and, don't kid yourself, eventually cut that liability too.When and where is this going to end? Bastards.American workers, you are really all alone. And SOL.Really? And of course, some of you will support this...because you're either part of the .01% or think you one day will be or because any cut to big "gubment" is a good thing.And if the current system is old and broken, we the people and not the lobbyists doing the government's work for them, should fix it.Here's how ARAWC touts itself:Current states are Texas and Oklahoma. Next target state is Tennessee.And more coming soon: Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama. Coming for you.And here's the list of who I won't be giving my money to (if I even still do).To be fair, or attempt to be, lets all try to see it from a "good outcomes" point of view. But beware the language of who the good outcome is really for.They call it an "option." I call it total BS. It's all about saving the big corps and insurers money. Mitigate and minimize their risk...not yours. Full stop. So bend over some more, Americans!