|
 Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced major reforms June 13 to
Chicago’s $100 million-a-year workers’ compensation program in hopes of
controlling fraud, waste and abuse.
Results of an independent audit, released with the announcement, point toward
significant issues with the city’s workers’ comp program.
“The findings of this audit revealed what we already suspected: that the city’s
workers’ compensation program was undermanaged and lacked proper protocols –
which poses a disservice to our injured city employees as well as taxpayers,”
Lightfoot said.
Following federal corruption charges against Chicago Ald. Ed Burke and his
resignation from the City Council’s finance committee, fellow aldermen moved to
relinquish control of the program to the Department of Finance. Burke had been
in charge of the workers’ comp program for decades, fighting off attempts at
transparency and oversight, including by the city’s inspector general.
A 2018 lawsuit claimed Burke used the program to build a political army,
including hiring unqualified workers such as a dog walker, hairdresser and
waitress to run the costly program.
Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel ordered a forensic audit of the program in January.
The independent audit determined the workers’ comp program “is in need of
substantial improvement to operate more effectively as well as prevent and
detect potential fraud, waste and abuse.”
Grant Thornton, the firm conducting the audit, essentially determined there are
little to no processes for fraud management inside the city’s program. They
ranked the program with organizations whose fraud risk management processes are
“disorganized, even chaotic” and “undocumented and in a state of dynamic
change.”
[to top of second column] |
The audit found there were almost 1,300 open
workers’ comp claims, and 600 of those are decades old. The
unresolved claims have cost the city $300 million, Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot has directed the city to partner with a
third party to implement reforms recommended by the audit. Lightfoot
outlined the four points of reform:
Align claim handling practices and procedures with best practices,
such as establishing reporting periods and consistent review
processes
Adopt new technology systems to expedite claims review and control
medical costs, as well as improve outcomes for injured patients
Clear workers’ comp backlog through new process for handling legacy
claims
Implement a comprehensive “return to work” program to increase claim
closure rates
“There’s almost nobody in city government outside the [workers’
compensation] program that knows how it works,” claimed a 2016 WTTW
report. “No aldermen we spoke to had any clue how it worked.”
These reforms are a good step to address rampant fraud, waste and
abuse within Chicago’s workers’ comp program. Transparency is
important, but so is bringing workers’ comp costs in line with those
in other municipalities.
Lightfoot has warned city residents to brace for further tax hikes
to fix serious budget problems. But there are better ways forward in
a shrinking city with the highest total debt burden among the
country’s 10 largest cities, an astounding $119,000 per taxpayer,
according to Truth in Accounting. Lightfoot and aldermen must back
pension reform and new agreements with the city’s employee unions.
Controlling costs and spending can fix Chicago. Continually raising
taxes has failed in the past, so there’s nothing to prove it can fix
the city’s future.
Click here to respond to the editor about this article |
