The members of the House of the Illinois General Assembly have agreed to the Senate’s amendments to HB 3390. As passed, the bill only contains several administrative changes sought by the Commission with little to no impact on either employees or employers.

Here are the four changes with these amendments:

• The Commission must provide interpreter for pro se settlements, if necessary.  When Initially proposed, the bill required the employer to provide an interpreter;
• Deletes some obsolete references to the Personnel Code in Section 14 dealing with Arbitrator appointments;
• The IWCC is no longer required to mail out a hard copy of the Commission handbook to claimants since this is available online.  A hard copy will only be sent when requested; and,
• Changes procedure for filing review in Circuit Court by replacing receipt of proof of payment for preparation of record with notice of intent to file for review in the Circuit Court, eliminating the per page fee and probable cost (the well-known $35)  for preparation of record. Transfers balance (reported to be about $60K) in Transcript Deposit Fund to the Injured Workers’ Benefit Fund.

By making these limited changes, the legislature made no change to the interest rate on Commission awards, did not create a penalty for a delay in the authorization of treatment, and, perhaps most controversially, made no change to the current status of the law following the Will County Forest Preserve District case which held that shoulder injuries should be treated as a “man as a whole” settlement/award under Section 8(d)2 s as opposed to a loss of use of the arm under Section 8(e)(10).