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A COST ASSIGNMENT CENTRE AND A NEW TABLE OF MAXIMUM CONSOLIDATION TIMES

On May 1, 2007, the new cost assignment centre of Quebec's workers' compensation board (the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail or CSST) became operational. The creation of this centre is part of a program of new measures introduced by the CSST relating to the handling of applications for the sharing or transfer of benefit costs among employers. The establishment of the centre also coincides with the development by the CSST of a new Table of Maximum Consolidation Times to be used in conjunction with section 329 of the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases. This Table will be used among other things to determine the proportion in which the employer is entitled to have the benefit cost burden of an employment injury shared where it applies, pursuant to section 329 of the Act, for such cost sharing on the basis that the worker was already handicapped when the employment injury appeared. Employers who make such applications for cost sharing on a frequent basis are likely to feel the effects of these changes in the coming months.

According to the CSST, the creation of the new cost assignment centre is designed to serve a dual purpose, namely:

1. To standardize the treatment given to applications for sharing or transfer of benefit costs made by employers from all regions of the province;
2. To reduce application processing time, which currently can be several months.

Headquartered at the CSST's offices in the Chaudière-Appalaches administrative region, the centre is comprised of twelve (12) cost assignment officers, three (3) consulting physicians and two (2) lawyers. The CSST anticipates that it will be possible, in the fairly near future, to ensure that all applications for the sharing or transfer of benefit costs can be processed through the initial decision phase within a ninety (90) day period.

MAXIMUM CONSOLIDATION TIMES MADE LONGER

For quite some time now, the CSST has availed itself of a Table of Maximum Consolidation Times, which table is used, among other things, to determine the proportion in which a worker's handicap can be assumed to have impacted the time required for an employment injury to consolidate, and thereby, the costs assigned to the employer's file.

The revamped Table of Maximum Consolidation Times, used by the CSST since May 1, 2007, is much more detailed than the previous one. The CSST maintains that the new Table is based on a body of medical literature and similar tables adopted by its counterparts in a number of other Canadian provinces. On examining the Table, one is immediately struck by the fact that the maximum consolidation times for certain frequently occurring workplace injuries have been made significantly longer. For example, the anticipated time for consolidation of a shoulder tendinitis has gone from 35 to 120 days. Similarly, the maximum consolidation time for a lumbar sprain has gone from 35 to 84 days, and for an epicondolytis, from 49 to 112 days.

Clearly, such changes in what are considered maximum consolidation times will have the inevitable consequence of reducing the proportion in which employers are entitled to have the benefit cost burden associated with an employment injury shared pursuant to section 329 of the Act. Indeed, since the CSST usually calculates such proportion based on the ratio of the actual consolidation time in the case concerned to the maximum consolidation time for the injury, all applications for cost sharing where the actual consolidation time is less than the time indicated in the table are now likely to be rejected. For the others, more of the cost assigned to the employer's file is likely to remain there than was the case before.

You should also know that the CSST has announced that in future, it intends to intervene systematically before its review body (the Commission des lésions professionnelles or CLP) in order to defend its decisions in matters of cost assignment.

BETTER CONTROL OVER UNASSIGNED EXPENSES

Unassigned expenses (dépenses non imputées, commonly known as "DNI") are all the costs that the CSST cannot assign to a particular employer's file. The majority of DNI arise from the process whereby the CSST, on the application of an employer, apportions the cost of benefits associated with an employment injury to the employers of all units in accordance with section 329 of the Act.

In recent years, the CSST has become concerned about the rapid growth of these costs, which represent a greater and greater share of the base assessment rate charged to all employers.

The new assignment framework will undoubtedly have a significant effect on the evolution of these costs and will obviously help to bring them down. In general, as a combined effect of the adoption of the new Table and the CSST's plan to intervene systematically in all cases that come before the CLP, employers who make frequent applications for cost sharing and are subject to the retrospective adjustment rating system will see their assessment rates go up, while the others will benefit from a corresponding decline in DNI levels.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, employers who make frequent applications for sharing of employment injury costs under section 329 of the Act will have to adapt and manage their files methodically if they wish to make up for the ground they stand to lose as a result of the application of the new Table. In addition, such employers may often find that they need to shore up the medical evidence submitted in the case of a contestation before the CLP, given the announcement that the CSST attorneys intend to systematically intervene to defend their decisions.

Nicolas Dallaire

The purpose of this document is to provide information as to developments in the law. It does not contain a full analysis of the law nor does it constitute an opinion of Ogilvy Renault LLP or any member of the firm on the points of law discussed.

For further information, please contact one of the following lawyers:

© Ogilvy Renault LLP 2007 - All Rights Reserved

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