Tell Gov. Polis to Veto HB-1300 to Protect Injured Workers and Colorado Small Businesses

Under current law, an injured worker is provided a list of four physicians to choose from when seeking care for a work-related injury. HB25-1300, currently sitting on Gov. Polis’ desk, encourages the injured worker to instead select from the state government’s directory, coupled with open-ended timelines for multiple physician changes. 

With over a century of experience serving injured workers, Pinnacol knows these employees deserve trusted guidance and medical care in the event of an injury. When a new member/policyholder joins Pinnacol, we collaborate to thoughtfully provide a panel of physicians based on quality, experience, workers’ compensation specialty, and location to meet the unique needs of their workplace and the care of their employees. This process ensures that injured workers are quickly provided with meaningful resources and guidance in the event of an injury, eliminating delays in treatment and supporting them through their recovery. It also ensures that physicians have a proven track record in understanding the unique nature of return to work and other programs that support an injured worker’s journey back to recovery and the workplace.    

In collaboration with our members, we make significant investments to make the process simple, workable, efficient, and beneficial to their employees. Pinnacol maintains the highest injured worker satisfaction in Colorado among major carriers by a wide margin, and less than half of one percent of injured workers under Pinnacol’s care request a physician change. 

The state government’s investment in its directory of physicians could in no way compare to the thoughtful and successful care that Pinnacol and its members like you have made in the network of physicians that serve injured workers today. We are concerned that this legislation will have injured workers navigate a vast government directory of physicians with complex designations, credentials, manual distance calculations and additional required state forms while also creating open-ended timelines for multiple physician changes. This, coupled with the challenging circumstances of their injury, will ultimately delay care, harm injured workers and increase costs to employers.