Central New Yorker nominated to head NY state Workers' Compensation Board

CNY Business Journal (1994-95), Apr 03, 1995 by Harting, Don

SYRACUSE--Robert R. Snashall, an attorney with the Syracuse law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King, has been nominated by Gov. George E. Pataki to be the next chairman of the state Workers' Compensation Board.

Formed in 1914, the board administers five benefit programs that cover nearly 7.2 million workers. It has a staff of approximately 1,600 statewide, with offices in Brooklyn, Hempstead, Albany, Binghamton, Rochester, Syracuse, and Buffalo.

Snashall, 42, has been with the Bond firm since 1991 and is chairman of its workers'-compensation practice group. From 1987 to 1991, Snashall managed the regional office for the Special Funds Conservation Committee. The committee is an agency of the board that oversees funds within the workers'-compensation system set up to pay for certain types of claims. Snashall was formerly an attorney with the Albany firm of Sullivan, Rehfuss, Cunningham & Brennan. A Cazenovia resident, he is a graduate of the State University of New York and Albany Law School.

Pataki said in a Press release that Snashall understands how workers'-compensation costs are hurting business growth in the state. Pataki said Snashall will "work to make sure the workers'-compensation system is fair to both the injured worker and the employer who pays the bill." The nomination is subject to confirmation by the state Senate. The position pays $90,832 per year.

Reform of the workers'-compensation system continues to be a high priority among members of the state's business community. A coalition of 6,000 New York businesses is calling upon the governor and the Legislature to further reform the way the state's injured workers are compensated.

The New York Workers' Compensation Action Network (NYCAN) was formed to address workers'-compensation insurance costs. Coalition officials say they will introduce "aggressive" legislation "that will ensure fair, adequate benefits for injured workers while setting affordable, predictable costs for employers."

Heading the upstate effort is Lawrence T. Gilroy III, president of Gilroy, Kernan and Gilroy of New Hartford, an insurance agency. "It's gotten to the point," Gilroy said in a prepared statement, "where soaring medical costs and double-dipping lawsuits are driving businesses out of state and burdening those that stay with a heavy hidden tax."

Reform of the workers'-compensation system was a high priority of former Gov. Mario Cuomo at the start of the 1993 session of the Legislature. It was also a top priority of the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business and the Business Council of New York State, Inc. While no progress was made during the 1993 regular session, a compromise package was put together during a special session late in the year. Cicero Assemblyman Michael J. Bragman played a key role in that compromise.

A major reform bill was signed into law in December of 1993. Since then, a committee representing labor and management interests has hammered out the details of a pilot program in which a limited number of business owners could benefit from the lower premium costs associated with having more control over the medical care given to injured workers. A presentation on how the program will work, and how to go about applying to participate, was made by state officials in Syracuse during 1994. That meeting was packed with interested executives from Central New York businesses.

Soon after he took office, Pataki issued a 90-day moratorium on nearly all new regulations issued by state agencies. The move was meant to reduce the regulatory burden carried by New York business owners. Yet the ban had an additional, unintended effect: it stalled implementation of rules governing the managed-care pilot program created to rein in workers' compensation insurance costs.

According to Gilroy, one of the factors driving the system's costs is the steady increase in average workers'-compensation medical benefits--173 percent from 1982 to 1991. He also cited the fact that most insurers are prevented from exerting control over the care workers receive, and the continuing liability placed on New York employers for unlimited damages, due to the precedent set by a court decision called Dole v. Dow.

"Such problems plague the workers'-compensation system here in New York," Gilroy said. "Our neighboring states...sensitive to the plight of the private sector, have effected substantial reforms....New York can no longer compete with other states and will soon become an economic wasteland...."