44-510g. Vocational rehabilitation, agreement of employer or insurance carrier; vocational rehabilitation administrator and assistants; qualified service providers, referrals.
44-510g
44-510g. Vocational rehabilitation, agreement of employer or insurancecarrier; vocational rehabilitation administrator and assistants; qualifiedservice providers, referrals.(a) A primary purpose of the workers compensation act shall be to restorethe injured employee to work at a comparable wage. To this end, the directorshallappoint,subject to the approval of the secretary, a specialist invocational rehabilitation, who shall be referred to as the vocationalrehabilitationadministrator.No vocational assessment, evaluation, services or training shall be providedor made available under the workers compensation act unless specifically agreedto by the employer or insurance carrier providing or making available suchassessment, evaluation, services or training. Upon such agreement, thevocational rehabilitation administrator may make recommendations for andsupervise such assessment, evaluation, services or training on behalf of theemployee and such assessment, evaluation, services or training shall not bearbitrarily terminated by the employer or insurance carrier once such agreementis entered into by the employer or insurance carrier. Nothing in this sectionshall prohibit the employee from obtaining such assessment, evaluation,services or training at the employee's expense from any provider or through anyother public or private funding or agency.The director may appoint, subject to the approval of thesecretary, assistant vocational rehabilitation administrators. Thevocational rehabilitationadministrator and the assistant vocational rehabilitation administratorsshall be in theclassified service under the Kansas civil service act. The vocationalrehabilitationadministrator and the assistant vocational rehabilitation administrators,subject to thedirection of the vocational rehabilitation administrator, shall: (1)Continuously studythe problems of vocational rehabilitation; (2) investigate andmaintain a directory of all vocational rehabilitation facilities, public orprivate, inthis state, and, where the vocational rehabilitation administratordetermines necessary,in any other state; and (3) be fully knowledgeable regarding the eligibilityrequirements of all state, federal and other publicvocational rehabilitation facilities and benefits.
(b) The director shall approve as qualified such individuals,facilities,institutions, agencies and employer programs as the directorfinds arecapable of rendering competent vocational rehabilitation services andwhich are referred to in this section as "providers." Thedirector shall continuously monitor the quality and timeliness of the servicesof providers found qualified by the director to provide vocationalrehabilitation services. No such provider shall beapproved asqualified unlessthe provider isequippedwith such physical facilities as the director deems necessary and isstaffed with personnel specifically trained and qualified, as the directordeems necessary,to provide vocational rehabilitation services.
If the employer or the employer's insurance carrier do not agree to providevocational rehabilitation services, the employee may request the vocationalrehabilitation administrator to refer the employee to an appropriate providerfor vocational rehabilitation services to be provided at the employee'sexpense.Referrals for vocationalrehabilitation services shall not be made to a provider in whichthe employer, the employer's insurance carrier or the claimsadjusting company handling the claim has a demonstrable financialinterest,unless a full, written disclosure of the demonstrable financial interest hasbeen submittedin writing by the provider to the employer, the employer's insurance carrier,any claims adjusting company handling the claim, the employee and thevocational rehabilitation administrator.Medical management or medicalmonitoring servicesshall not be considered to be providing vocationalrehabilitation services and the costs thereof shall not beconsidered as the payment of workers compensation benefits normedical benefits.
History: L. 1974, ch. 203, § 17; L. 1976, ch. 370, § 19; L.1980, ch. 146, § 2; L. 1986, ch. 318, § 54; L. 1987, ch. 189, § 1; L.1989, ch. 149, § 1; L. 1990, ch. 185, § 1; L. 1990, ch. 183, § 4;L. 1991, ch. 144, § 4;L. 1993, ch. 286, § 36; July 1.