Finally! It appears that many of Missouri's injured workers may receive the benefits they fought for and won, but never received. On July 11, 2013, Governor Nixon signed SB1, a bill which changes the way that the Second Injury Fund is financed as well as the types of claims that are covered. The Second Injury Fund has been short of money for several years, and until this last legislative session, the legislature didn't pass any bills to remedy the dire situation. The new law will double the surcharge that Missouri businesses pay on their workers' compensation premiums to finance the Fund. The Second Injury Fund was designed to compensate disabled workers who become more disabled due to work-related injuries. The Fund has been broke due to a change in the law in 2005 that capped the surcharge (it previously fluctuated based upon the neesd of the Fund). Although the new law will help injured workers who have been awaiting their benefits for quite some time, it also limits the types of claims that qualify for Fund benefits in the future. In other words, people who are injured after passage of the law who would have been entitled to Fund benefits may no longer be eligible under the new law. A future article will address the changes in the law in detail.
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