Overpayment Of Workers' Compensation Benefits

The act defines "overpayments" of workers' compensation benefits as money received by a claimant that:

• Is a result of fraud;
• Is the result of an error due only to miscalculation, omission, or clerical error asserted in a new admission of liability;
• Is paid in error or in excess of an admission or order that exists at the time that the benefits are paid to a claimant; or
• Results in duplicate benefits as specified in the act.

The act also:

• Clarifies that these limitations on overpayments do not prevent an insurance carrier or employer from receiving a credit against permanent disability benefits for temporary disability benefits paid beyond the date of maximum medical improvement and do not prevent the director of the division of workers' compensation or an administrative law judge from determining overpayments and requiring repayment of overpayments; and
• Prohibits the director or an administrative law judge from reopening an award of benefits paid to a claimant due to an overpayment except in limited, specific circumstances.
  (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)