Letter to the editor: WSI is comitted to helping workers in their time of need

Talk about it

Newman Power wrote a letter on June 3 regarding Workforce Safety and Insurance and I would like to respond. I recognize that when workers are injured on the job, it disrupts their lives and brings added stress to them and their families. I want to assure the citizens of our state that the staff at WSI is committed to help those who are hurt on the job to get back to work as quickly and safely as possible.

While WSI and medical confidentiality laws do not allow us to discuss a specific injured workers’ claim, your readers should know that the staff of WSI and Gov. John Hoeven’s office work diligently with injured workers to ensure that their claims are handled properly and in a timely way.

Specifically in this case I can tell you that Hoeven’s office has advised me that a number of contacts with Power have been made, and followed up on, in the past. I can empathize with the difficulties that a worker experiences after an injury. That is why last session we pushed for and received increased compensation benefits for injured workers and their families. We always want to do better and as the new director of WSI I am looking for and will continue to look for, ways to improve the services and programs we provide to the workers and employers of our state.

Bryan Klipfel

Bismarck

(Kilpfel is the director of Workforce Safety and Insurance)

Tags: opinion, letters, workforce, safety, wsi, insurance