Chambana Sun

Illinois State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) questions officials of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission regarding their request for a $28.8 million budget, which is similar to that of the previous fiscal year.

During a meeting with the members of the Illinois State Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Business Regulations and Labor, Rose directed his first inquiry to Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission Chairman Michael Brennan about the backlog of cases during a COVID-19 pandemic-hit year, "What is being done to deliver this service more efficiently and get these cases adjudicated?"

Believing the case totals will start to increase once the state economy fully reopens and welcomes back more workers, Brennan replied "Our arbitrators are conducting pre-trials far more effectively, far more efficiently and we are seeing arbitrators that are conducting 120 to 150 pre-trials every month right now."

Rose then directed his question to Paul Fichtner, CFO of the commission about the issue of refunds. "I wanted to make sure people are getting their money refunded to them correctly. Can you tell us what steps you're taking to remedy those promises that were contained in the audit?"

Fichtner assured Rose that the Commission has created a more efficient system to make sure the audit issue regarding refunds won't occur again in the future. "The amounts involved in that were very small and very small number of people, maybe four or five. We feel we did an excellent job and we're going to clean up that finding."