A bill that would have placed limits on the ability of insurers to spy on workers’ compensation claimants died Wednesday in committee, The Pueblo Chieftain reports.
The Senate Committee on Judiciary killed HB1012, sponsored by Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, more than a month after hearing testimony on it. It failed on a 4-3 vote.
“We knew all along that we were missing a key vote. That’s why it sat on the calendar for a month,” Pace said.
Pinnacol Assurance, under intense scrutiny in the Colorado Legislature for the past year, caught its first break in a while Tuesday when a state House committee rejected a bill that would have capped the workers’-compensation insurer’s reserves and required it to pay excess revenues back to policyholders as dividends, the Denver Business Journal reports. House Bill 1356, sponsored by Rep. Su Ryden, D-Aurora, would have capped the amount of Pinnacol’s risk-based capital that it could keep in reserve and mandate the rest go back annually to its roughly 55,000 business clients statewide.
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A quintet of bills aimed at making Colorado workers’-compensation insurer Pinnacol Assurance more accountable to the state and the public rolled on in the Legislature late Wednesday, though a particularly divisive bill on surveillance of supposedly injured workers stalled temporarily while its sponsor cleans up some issues with its language, The Denver Business Journal reports. The Senate Judiciary Committee, at the end of a seven-hour hearing, approved five of the seven bills suggested this summer by an interim committee studying Pinnacol, sending them to the Senate floor.
In other coverage:
The Denver Post (editorial): In the end, Pinnacol Assurance never proved that the deal being brokered with the governor’s office was anything more than a cash for autonomy exchange. As tempting as the big-money offer from Pinnacol was in these tough economic times, Colorado lawmakers were right to take a pass on it this legislative session. Would the $330 million deal create a better environment for Pinnacol’s thousands of policyholders? Would it benefit future businesses that sought Pinnacol’s help? No one could say for sure.
Associated Press: Colorado lawmakers have begun debate on a package of tough reforms for Colorado’s workers compensation program after injured workers told lawmakers they were spied upon and had benefits denied. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved several bills, including a measure that would change the makeup of the board of directors of Pinnacol Assurance, the state-chartered insurance company. Lawmakers added a doctor and an injured worker to the nine-member board to prevent abuses.
The proposal to give Pinnacol Assurance nearly full autonomy in exchange for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to the state will not happen this year, The Denver Post reports.
That fact was confirmed by officials with the quasi-governmental worker’s compensation insurance fund today.
“Today we were advised that Pinnacol’s proposed plan to separate from the State of Colorado will not be considered by the Colorado General Assembly during the 2010 session,” Pinnacol President and chief executive Ken Ross said in a statement.
In other coverage:
The Denver Business Journal: The Colorado Legislature ended discussion of a $330 million deal in which Pinnacol Assurance would buy itself out from under state control Tuesday, leaving the quasi-governmental workers’ compensation agency full of reserve money, but fearful that a future Legislature will raid it. The end to roughly six months of negotiations between Pinnacol and Gov. Bill Ritter’s office came one day before six bills that would restrict some of the company’s activities are due to be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, who sponsored a failed 2009 effort to take $500 million from Pinnacol’s reserves, said that any potential deal would be killed in his chamber, according to House Speaker Terrance Carroll, D-Denver.
Pinnacol Assurance, the state-chartered workers’ compensation insurance fund that wants to be privatized, said Thursday it’s willing to offer the state more money — $130 million more — to do that, The Denver Post reports. Pinnacol’s increased offer comes a week after the release of an analysis from financial-services firm Morgan Stanley that said the quasi-governmental agency was worth as much as $374 million to the state, nearly twice the amount Pinnacol had originally offered the state in exchange for almost full privatization.
With the legislative session halfway over, leaders from both parties are saying it’s less likely lawmakers will consider a proposal to spin off Pinnacol Assurance, the state-chartered workers’ compensation fund, The Denver Post reports. Analysts from Morgan Stanley said in a report released Monday that a deal to “separate” Pinnacol from the state could fetch up to $374 million for the state, including an upfront payment of up to $264 million.
Pinnacol Assurance is worth as much as $374 million to the state, an analysis by financial services firm Morgan Stanley shows. That’s nearly twice the amount Pinnacol, the state-chartered workers’ compensation insurance fund, offered the state under a proposal that would grant the quasi-governmental agency nearly full autonomy, The Denver Post reports.
A group of lawmakers that heard six days of testimony about the practices of Pinnacol Assurance before this legislative session began oppose privatization of the workers’ compensation insurer. A letter to Gov. Bill Ritter from members of the joint committee obtained Tuesday by The Pueblo Chieftain cites testimony that spotlighted the company’s executive spending habits, reluctance to pay claimants and “lack of accountability and oversight” as reasons to abandon abandon ongoing discussions about privatizing the quasi-governmental insurer, presently under auspices of the state. Democratic Reps. Sal Pace, of Pueblo, Joe Miklosi, of Denver, and Su Ryden, of Aurora, and Sens. Morgan Carroll, of Aurora, Lois Tochtrop, of Thornton signed the letter.
From The Denver Post’s editorial board: “We wish (Senate President Brandon) Shaffer had held his fire until all the details of the proposal are known. While the results of an appraisal now being conducted at Pinnacol’s expense may justify his concerns, it strikes us as reckless to come to such a conclusion without considering the as-yet-unavailable findings.”
The head of the Colorado Senate said Monday he does not want to privatize Pinnacol Assurance, a pronouncement that could dim prospects for the cash-strapped state to reap hundreds of millions of dollars by spinning off the workers’ compensation insurance fund, The Denver Post reports. “The Pinnacol transaction is not something we’re seriously looking at this year,” said Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont. “I think it’s a bad deal on a variety of different levels, and I’m not willing to go forward with it.”
