House Bill No. by Representative Echols aims to amend the Louisiana Workers' Compensation Law by establishing a new medical fee reimbursement schedule. The bill mandates that the assistant secretary of the office of workers' compensation administration will create a reimbursement schedule for various medical services, drugs, and supplies. The new reimbursement structure will limit charges to either the amount due under Medicare multiplied by one and a half or the actual charge for the service, whichever is lower. This replaces the previous requirement that limited charges to the mean of the usual and customary charges.

Additionally, the bill repeals the assistant secretary's authority to collect certain information and calculate the reimbursement schedule, as well as the confidentiality provisions related to this data. Specifically, it removes sections of the law that required the assistant secretary to gather and maintain confidential information for the purpose of establishing the reimbursement schedule. Overall, the bill seeks to streamline the reimbursement process for workers' compensation claims while eliminating previous data collection requirements.

Statutes affected:
HB198 Original: 23:2(A), 23:2(C)(2)