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self -insures, a self-insurance pool such as <br />the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance <br />Trust, or a private insurance company for a <br />single incident with multiple PTSD-affected <br />workers could potentially be much greater <br />than the dollar amount of the WCRA <br />retention the city has selected for other <br />covered injuries. <br />In 2014, a Minnesota Supreme Court <br />decision found that provisions in the <br />Workers' Compensation statute which allow <br />workers compensation benefits for <br />permanent and total disabilities to be offset <br />by disability benefits and pension benefits <br />such as Social Security does not apply to <br />retirement benefits of the Public Employees <br />Retirement Association. This decision will <br />allow these injured employees to "stack" <br />PERA retirement benefits on top of <br />Workers' Compensation benefits, resulting <br />in an employee being potentially able to <br />receive more net compensation than his/her <br />pre -injury salary. The cost of this expansion <br />would be passed on to cities and their <br />taxpayers through premium or self-insurance <br />cost increases. The League is also <br />concerned that this decision would have a <br />similar outcome to that of the public safety <br />health insurance bill (Minn. Stat. § <br />299A.465) which incentivized public safety <br />employees to seek disability pensions and <br />resulted in an extremely expansive and <br />costly program which took many years to <br />rectify. Currently, the WCAC does not have <br />a public employer representative to explain <br />the unique impacts of this type of change on <br />the public sector. <br />Response: Legislative action is necessary <br />to address increasing workers' <br />compensation costs, particularly rising <br />medical costs. The League of Minnesota <br />Cities supports use of the WCAC system <br />to consider proposals for changes to the <br />workers' compensation law, and urges the <br />WCAC and the Legislature to approve <br />medical cost containment reforms. The <br />League also supports adding a designated <br />public sector employer representative to <br />the WCAC. <br />The League opposes expansion of <br />workers' compensation and related health <br />insurance benefits because of the <br />potential for dramatically increasing costs <br />to cities. Specifically, the League opposes <br />expansion of the heart, lung and <br />infectious disease presumptions as well as <br />any expansion of the law that would <br />require payment of health insurance <br />premiums or that would include mental <br />injuries that have no physical cause or <br />manifestation. <br />The League also supports continuing the <br />WCRA as the mandatory workers' <br />compensation reinsurer for insurers and <br />self -insurers in Minnesota and supports <br />modifying state statutes to treat PTSD <br />events involving several affected parties <br />as one occurrence for retention purposes, <br />thereby reducing the exposure of self - <br />insured entities and the statewide <br />insurance pools. Such a change would not <br />have any effect on the benefit an <br />individual employee would receive. <br />Finally, the League supports legislation <br />that would disallow the "stacking" of <br />PERA retirement benefits and Workers <br />Compensation benefits due to the fact <br />that some injured employees could <br />receive total compensation from workers' <br />compensation and PERA retirement <br />benefits that would be well above the <br />salary that they had been earning and the <br />fact that the costs would ultimately be <br />passed on to cities and their taxpayers. <br />HR-16. Breathalyzers <br />Issue: Currently, breathalyzer use is <br />permitted for alcohol testing under federal <br />League of Minnesota Cities <br />2015 City Policies Page 83 <br />