Workers' Compensation Board

Agency Web Site: http://www.wcb.ny.gov/

Mission

The New York State Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) protects the rights of employees and employers by ensuring the proper delivery of benefits to eligible individuals who are injured or become ill, and by promoting compliance with the law. To protect the well-being of New York’s labor force, most private and public sector employers in New York are required to carry workers’ compensation and disability benefits insurance for their employees or demonstrate their ability to self-insure. The Board aims to administer an efficient and responsive workers’ compensation and disability benefits system that promotes optimal medical outcomes, prompt wage replacements, and timely resolution of issues.

The Board also administers the Disability Benefits program which includes the recently enacted Paid Family Leave (PFL) law. PFL is landmark legislation which helps New York families who are trying to balance work and financial obligations with caring for loved ones. PFL became effective on January 1, 2018 and the Board is leading the effort to seamlessly implement the program’s regulations and processes associated with this new law.

Organization and Staffing

The Board is headed by a Chairperson selected by the Governor and includes 12 additional full-time members nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate for seven-year terms. District offices are located in Albany, Binghamton, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Hauppauge, Manhattan, Queens, Rochester, and Syracuse; with the administrative office in Schenectady. The Board has additional customer service centers located throughout the State.

Budget Highlights

The FY 2021 Executive Budget recommends $196.4 million in All Funds appropriation, all of which is funded by assessments on businesses. This amount remains flat from the previous fiscal year. The Board will continue to move forward with a multi year Business Process Re-Engineering project which is supported by $68.3 million in Capital reappropriations. The Executive Budget projects a staffing level of 1,109 in FY 2021, which is unchanged from the previous year.

Program Highlights

The Board continues work on a multi-phase project to re-envision the Workers’ Compensation System in New York State. The Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR) began with identifying the needs of stakeholders in the system which included conducting outreach to both internal and external system participants and stakeholders, collecting feedback and recommendations to issues impacting the delivery of benefits and overall operation of the system. Prior Executive Budgets have included $80 million in capital appropriations to enable the Board to address long standing shortcomings within the current system and position the Board to meet its emerging needs.

Key initiatives this fiscal year include:

Business Information System: A competitive contract was awarded in March 2019. Work will continue toward a web-based, custom developed, cloud hosted solution to modernize and convert the WCB’s multiple legacy paper-based systems to a single state-of-the-art, web-based technology. In addition to supporting the core functions of the WCB claims management process, the new web-based solution will provide many important features including online registration, an intuitive user experience, improved self-service and leveraging of data, automated workflows, communications functionality such as texting with mobile smart phones and tablets, and interaction with other systems’ master data (DOL, State Education Department, etc.).

Expanded Provider Legislation: Legislation enacted in FY 20 authorized the expansion of the types of medical providers that treat injured workers in the New York State workers' compensation system. Starting January 1, 2020, licensed clinical social workers, nurse practitioners and acupuncturists, as well as current ancillary providers, including physician assistants, occupational therapists and physical therapists may apply to become a Board-authorized provider. This law is expected to bring thousands of providers into the NYS workers' compensation system and dramatically improve injured workers' access to health care.

Note: Most recent estimates as of 01/29/2020