NWCDN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA WORKERS' COMPENSATION UPDATE New District of Columbia Benefit Rates Effective January 1, 2008, the following are the benefit rates for District of Columbia: Maximum Weekly Compensation Rate: $1,288.00 Minimum Weekly Compensation Rate: $ 322.00 Supplemental Allowance for Permanent Total and Death Benefits: 4.47% increase     If you would like benefit rate cards prepared by Franklin & Prokopik detailing the District of Columbia benefit rates from 1998-2007, please contact F&P principal, John P. Rufe, on (301) 745-3900, or by email at jrufe@fandpnet.com.     On 10/2/07 the District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) announced its approval of the 2008 workers’ compensation rate filings by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI). They include a decrease of 7.6 percent for the industrial classes in the voluntary market, and a decrease of 10.6 percent for the industrial classes in the residual market (those in the assigned risk category). The rate decreases were a result of an overall decline in claim frequency, and less severity in the claims amount, and reflects a trend nationwide over the past several years. While most of the insurance companies will use the NCCI-recommended rates, different additional expenses might add to the rates that each company sets in a competitive market. The Compensation Order Review Board has affirmed the statutory requirement that, when an issue arises as to the reasonableness and necessity of medical    treatment, the issue must first be referred to utilization review, prior to requesting a formal administrative hearing thereon. This provision had not been enforced for many years.  (2/21/2007)   Standard of Compensability for Psychological Injury McCamey v. DOES, (DC, May 15, 2008)   The DC Court of Appeals sitting en banc has overruled several of its prior cases dealing with the standard for compensability of psychological injury.  There are now currently two different standards depending on whether there is a physical injury involved. In the context of physical-mental disabilities, the physical accident is the unexpected occurrence supplying the necessary (and objective) workplace connection. Thus, in cases of physical injury, so long as the claimant proffers competent medical evidence connecting the mental disability to the physical accident (legal causation), the claimant has either established a prima facie case of aggravation or a new injury. The court did not have before it the issue of mental-mental disabilities, where traditionally the question is whether the stresses of the job were so great that they could have caused harm to an average worker. Job stresses are to be measured against the usual stressors or mental stimuli of employment in general. Thus, a claimant must show that his current job conditions are unusually stressful as compared to employment conditions in general, not as compared to his work history. The court appears to question the application of this standard even to mental-mental claims, its primary concern being that the concept seems to conflict with cases of aggravation of a pre-existing condition. The court suggested that the objective standard may not be appropriate in such an instance. No doubt this issue will be addressed in the near future.    New Unemployment Insurance Tax Enacted          The District of Columbia recently enacted legislation that requires all liable employers to pay an administrative assessment of two-tenths of one percent (0.2%) to support the administration of the District's Unemployment Insurance (UI) Program. This administrative assessment is payable by both rated (tax-paying) employers and self-insured (reimbursable) employers on the first $9,000 of wages paid to each employee during a calendar year. In terms of dollars, the assessment amounts to a maximum payment annually of $18 for each employee. The assessment goes into effect for wages reported for the quarter ending March 31, 2006. Rated employers should note the following important point: Only the amount paid in regular UI taxes can be reported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Form 940. The amount paid in administrative assessment is not reportable to the IRS. For further inquiries regarding District of Columbia law contact Mr. Rufe on (301) 745-3900, or by email at jrufe@fandpnet.com.