Arkansas  Workers Compensation Commission (AWCC)

The Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission and the laws it administers were created effective December 5, 1940. Workers’ compensation insurance is directed to the moral, social and economic benefits of protecting employers, employees, and their dependents from financial burdens imposed by job-related injury and disease. Arkansas law provides that employers in categories not specifically exempted must provide insurance coverage for employee costs incurred as a result of job-related accidents and disease.

The AWCC is not an insurance company. Rather, it enforces the workers’ compensation laws to ensure that all covered employers secure insurance coverage from commercial carriers or through self-insurance programs. In addition, the AWCC regulates workers’ compensation awards to ensure that benefit providers make correct and timely payments to eligible claimants.

In some cases, the extent of disability as well as the fairness of the total compensation can be a contentious issue among the parties. The AWCC, through its three Commissioners and a staff of Administrative Law Judges, adjudicate disputed workers’ compensation cases with binding decisions that can be appealed to the Arkansas Court of Appeals and the Arkansas Supreme Court.

The Commission and Divisions

The three-member commission is responsible for the administration of the workers’ compensation laws in Arkansas. The Governor appoints each Commissioner for a term of six years. One of the Commissioners represents the interest of labor, another management, and the Chairman acts as a neutral party, representing the interests of the public.

The administrative and regulatory functions of the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission include monitoring all claims and benefit payment to injured workers, processing settlements, lump sum payments, and requests for changes in physicians; ensuring that employers maintain required insurance coverage; approving applications of employers to act as self-insurers; and participating in programs to explain the functions of the Commission to the general public.

Divisions

Eleven Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission (AWCC) divisions offer help with the state workers’ compensation system and provide a multitude of services:

• Adjudication Division – has administrative law judges to serve, if necessary, as referees should misunderstandings or disagreements arise.
• Administrative Services Division – distributes and handles the job applications for persons seeking employment with the AWCC.
• Clerk of the Commission – processes all legal filings submitted to the AWCC and maintains current case files.
• Information Technology Division – operates our website allowing access to a wealth of information, such as the ability to download forms, advisories, and rules. Maintains all AWCC data, software, and PCs. 
• Executive Officer Division – will make presentations upon request to civic clubs, chambers of commerce, or other associations. Offered, among other talks, is a small business forum, which focuses on employers’ rights and responsibilities.
• Health & Safety Division – gives workplace loss control and accident prevention assistance. The division coordinates an annual educational conference.
• Legal Advisor Division – is invaluable in helping to understand current law and in aiding unrepresented claimants. The division’s staff attorneys also provide mediation services.
• Medical Cost Containment Division – oversees the review of provider bills, changes of physician, and managed care.
• Operations/Compliance Division – researches case history, ensures that employers have workers’ compensation coverage, and issues Certificates of Non-Coverage.
• Self-Insurance Division – works with employers interested in serving as their own carrier for workers’ compensation.
• Special Funds Division – monitors death cases and permanent-total disability cases which insurers have completed, so that anyone still legitimately entitled to benefits receives them in a timely manner.