Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 50, December 13, 2024
Section 85-5-4 - Program to Update Disability Status of Those Receiving PTD Benefits as of July 1, 20034.1. Upon the effective date of this Rule, the Commission will begin a program requiring each person receiving permanent total disability benefits as of July 1, 2003, who had been granted a permanent total disability award on or after April 8, 1993, to 1) submit his or her tax returns for the preceding three (3) years; and 2) an affidavit demonstrating level of income, recreational activities, and work activities. Any permanent total disability award granted prior to April 8, 1993 but reopened for a benefit level adjustment shall be eligible for this review.4.2. Each month, the Commission shall contact, by certified mail, approximately five hundred (500) PTD Recipients in an effort to secure the information set forth in Section 4.1. The mailing shall include an appropriate Internal Revenue Service authorization which can be completed in full and returned to the Commission, a form affidavit, and a self-addressed, postage pre-paid return envelope so that the documents can be returned to the Commission at no charge to the PTD Recipient.4.3. The mailing shall instruct the recipient that he or she has forty-five (45) days from receipt to return the requested information or otherwise fully and adequately respond to the Commission's inquiry. Failure to so respond shall result in a second notice being sent to the PTD Recipient in the manner set forth in Section 4.2. The PTD Recipient will be given another forty-five (45) days to respond to this second notice and the PTD Recipient will be advised that failure to fully and adequately respond will result in a suspension of permanent total disability benefits.4.4. Failure of a PTD Recipient to fully and adequately respond to the second notice as described in Section 4.3 above shall result in the suspension of permanent total disability benefits. The suspension shall remain in effect until the PTD Recipient has fully complied with the Commission's request. Benefits may be reinstated prospectively if and when the PTD Recipient fully complies with the Commission's request, but the benefits lost during the suspension shall not be paid.4.5. The Commission will identify those injured workers who appear to be working, receiving income, not reporting any medical care, or are believed to otherwise not meet the current eligibility criteria for a permanent total disability award and make these individuals a priority review. Otherwise, the PTD review shall generally begin with those most recently awarded a permanent total disability award and will work in reverse chronological order thereafter.