Places restrictions on acceptable vocational rehabilitation plans. Specifies conditions under which the director shall approve rehabilitation plans. Subjects plans to performance reviews.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. Section 386-25, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§386-25 Vocational rehabilitation. (a) The purposes of vocational rehabilitation are to restore an injured worker's earning capacity as nearly as possible to that level which the worker was earning at the time of injury and to return the injured worker to suitable work in the active labor force as quickly as possible in a cost-effective manner.

(b) The director may refer employees who may have or have suffered permanent disability as a result of work injuries and who in the director's opinion can be vocationally rehabilitated to the department of human services or to private providers of rehabilitation services for vocational rehabilitation services that are feasible. A referral shall be made upon recommendation of the rehabilitation unit established under section 386-71.5 and after the employee has been deemed physically able to participate in rehabilitation by the employee's attending physician. No plan shall include vocational rehabilitation requiring vocational or academic instruction permitting the employee to become self-employed, nor shall successive plans for vocational rehabilitation be implemented without the approval of the employer.

The unit shall include appropriate professional staff and shall have the following duties and responsibilities:

(c) The director shall approve a plan of rehabilitation as meeting fully the employer's obligation under this section if it includes a program modifying the employee's job through changes to the work process or function, providing alternative work within the employee's physical limitations, or locating reemployment with a new employer using the employee's existing job skills. Notwithstanding subsection (e), the employee's refusal to accept a plan under this subsection shall terminate compensation for temporary total disability.

[(c)] (d) Enrollment in a rehabilitation plan or program shall not be mandatory and the approval of a proposed rehabilitation plan or program by the injured employee shall be required. [The injured employee may select a certified provider of rehabilitation services. Both the certified provider and the injured employee, within a reasonable time after initiating rehabilitation services, shall give proper notice of selection to the employer.] All plans developed under this subsection by a certified provider of rehabilitation services, who shall be chosen and agreed upon by both the employee and employer, shall be subject to a performance review for effectiveness before implementation and twenty-six weeks after the implementation. No plan for rehabilitation shall extend, nor shall any extension be granted, beyond the initial twenty-six weeks without a written performance review. The attending physician, certified vocational rehabilitation plan counselor, and employer, in consultation with the employee or employee's representative, if applicable, shall conduct the performance review to ensure that the plan is likely to result in return to suitable gainful employment. In case there is no agreement, the director shall make the final determination for implementation and any extension of an additional twenty-six weeks. No vocational rehabilitation plan, including the creation of a plan and subsequent reviews, shall exceed one hundred and four weeks in its entirety.

[(d)] (e) An injured employee's enrollment in a rehabilitation plan or program shall not affect the employee's entitlement to temporary total disability compensation if the employee earns no wages during the period of enrollment. If the employee receives wages for work performed under the plan or program, the employee shall be entitled to temporary total disability compensation in an amount equal to the difference between the employee's average weekly wages at the time of injury and the wages received under the plan or program, subject to the limitations on weekly benefit rates prescribed in section 386-31(a). The employee shall not be entitled to such compensation for any week during this period where the wages equal or exceed the average weekly wages at the time of injury.

[(e)] (f) The director shall adopt rules for additional living expenses necessitated by the rehabilitation program, together with all reasonable and necessary vocational training.

[(f)] (g) If the rehabilitation unit determines that vocational rehabilitation is not possible or feasible, it shall certify such determination to the director.

[(g)] (h) The eligibility of any injured employee to receive other benefits under this chapter shall in no way be affected by the employee's entrance upon a course of vocational rehabilitation as herein provided.

[(h)] (i) Vocational rehabilitation services for the purpose of developing a vocational rehabilitation plan may be approved by the director and the director may periodically review progress in each case."

SECTION 2. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.