President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Kamala Harris

(R) Donald Trump

80%↑

20%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

(R) V. Archuleta

98%

2%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Marshall Dawson

95%

5%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Hurd

(D) Adam Frisch

50%

50%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(D) Trisha Calvarese

90%

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank

(D) River Gassen

80%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

(R) John Fabbricatore

90%

10%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) B. Pettersen

(R) Sergei Matveyuk

90%

10%

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

52%↑

48%↓

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
September 19, 2009 12:54 AM UTC

Meanwhile, Back at the Pinnacol Hearings...

  • 19 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

SATURDAY UPDATE: Sen. Morgan Carroll responds to the Post’s editorial.

When we last talked about the hearings at the Capitol regarding the future of the state’s workman’s comp insurer of last resort Pinnacol Assurance, we were focused on off-color remarks by Sen. Shawn Mitchell to the committee chairwoman. In the background of that discussion, though, was the actual issue at hand: whether or not tax-exempt Pinnacol is treating either workers or taxpayers fairly.

To briefly recap, this past legislative session saw an attempt to appropriate excess reserves from Pinnacol to balance the state budget–the logic being that Pinnacol was a state entity and these funds were state funds. When Pinnacol resisted, all hell broke loose, with the “raid” on Pinnacol characterized as a ‘government takeover’ of a private business in full “Tea Party” hyperbole–and Democrats responding with disclosures about lavish expenses incurred by Pinnacol executives. After intervention by Governor Ritter basically halted the “raid” in its tracks, the committee currently investigating Pinnacol’s practices was set up.

Under the radar, these hearings have been very interesting–scrutinizing highly questionable perks enjoyed by Pinnacol executives, in contrast to stories of workers who had their claims denied or mishandled. It’s become a more fundamental look at Pinnacol’s special status in light of the job it’s doing. Those we’ve talked to have said the hearings were quite compelling, though both PInnacol representatives and certain Republicans involved (Mitchell, see above) were not participating in good faith. Pinnacol itself, which had come into the hearings allegedly prepared to–gasp!–pay taxes like any other entity who claims the independence they assert, reversed that position last week and now wants the status quo preserved. No reason, they just don’t want to play anymore.

And bafflingly, after everything they themselves reported about Pinnacol’s excesses in the last few months, the Denver Post is fine with that:

A committee of state lawmakers probing Pinnacol Assurance apparently just lost a chance to help plug the state’s $318 million budget deficit with possibly more than $100 million from Pinnacol. And if the quasi-public Pinnacol was ever willing to play nice and fork over some cash, the company and its policyholders have circled the wagons.

Too bad. Pinnacol’s offer was intriguing, and could have benefitted the cash-strapped state and bolstered the health of the company too.

The committee, led by state Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, went down a much different path than we would have liked. Though formed after concerns about the size of Pinnacol’s cash reserves, Carroll, who represents workers’ compensation cases in her private practice, has decided to seek an array of other reforms…

Carroll tells us the committee is no longer seeking to set the size of Pinnacol’s reserves, or to balance the state budget using Pinnacol’s cash. Rather, Carroll wants to make Pinnacol more beholden to injured workers. But a Republican member of the committee, Sen. Shawn Mitchell, says he thinks Carroll has “hijacked” the process to advance her agenda, and that the reality is that workers’ compensation in Colorado is functioning equitably and fairly.

This is an absolute pile of steaming crap, folks, qualitatively uncharacteristic of the Post’s editorial board as we’ve seen a couple times before–another Dean Singleton editorial “intervention,” perhaps? Pinnacol never went into these hearings in good faith, just like they were never really interested in a solution during the legislative session. They willingly turned this into a ridiculous ideological circus to evade growing questions about their practices. The committee investigating Pinnacol had every authority to look at all aspects of Pinnacol’s “business,” and the real problem here is that Pinnacol and their legislative allies didn’t like the narrative that was shaping up.

Possibly the worst aspect of this editorial is its elevation of Shawn Mitchell to a position of legitimacy in the context of these hearings. We’ve already played audio for you of one instance of Mitchell making a (tasteless) joke of his duties. Here’s another we were forwarded today–this time, listen to Mitchell blow off an injured worker whose claim was denied by Pinnacol:

So tort-reform Mitchell says, ‘Why didn’t you sue? You should have sued! You should have sued and now it’s too late. And what do you mean, you don’t have $200 to see a doctor?! Don’t go to the emergency room though, that’ll cost somebody real money!

That’s what he calls “workers’ compensation functioning equitably and fairly?”

In addition to making a poignantly unintentional argument for health care reform, it’s very difficult to listen to this interjection from Mitchell–certainly not his previous one–and not find him to be an utterly classless buffoon. You’ll recall it was the Grand Junction Sentinel who actually published the story about Mitchell’s pervy remarks to Sen. Carroll, the Denver Post didn’t care to–apparently they were saving his reputation for something.

And now we know what for! It was so he could attack these hearings, and Sen. Carroll’s motives broadly, without the reader ever knowing what a disingenuous slimeball they’re reading about. We’re sorry to put it in such blunt terms, that’s not really our style–the Post committed an especially disgusting foul with this one, and neither they nor Mitchell should be allowed to get away with it.

Comments

19 thoughts on “Meanwhile, Back at the Pinnacol Hearings…

  1. An employer (who testified at the Pinnocal hearing) has employee with significant TBI.  Underdiagnosed and undertreated by WC doctors.  Employer wants to do the right thing and try to help their employee.  Employer is paying out of pocket for supplemental doctors and treatment, but is wondering why they can’t get the coverage they have been paying for.  Insurer is not happy with Employer helping employee.  Insurer says it represents employer and insurer wants employer to back off helping their employee.    

  2. I read this editorial today and just about vomited. And exactly – the first thought I had was, “you guys didn’t print any of the shit Mitchell said about Morgan Carroll’s underwear in these official hearings, did you?”

    I hope Dean Singleton’s wife or girl/boyfriend cuts him off for a few weeks over this, Dan Haley too. What enabling assholes.

  3. I instructed my operations person on insurance to get quality plans that pay without any roadblocks for people. She did really good. We haven’t needed the workman’s comp (it’s hard to get injured on the job at a s/w company) but it’s through a quality insurer, not Pinnacol.

  4. and there are small businesses around the state sweating to pay their premiums and keep coverage. If you don’t have coverage,you can be punished big time. I’ve heard a small business recently fined $77,000 by Pinnocal for attempting to self insure. Now, what’s wrong with this picture? They’re killing small businesses.

    They ought to be taken to the woodshed.

  5. What’s worse is that “the offer” the DPost ed board criticized us for not accepting never existed.

    Pinnacol had a back room meeting with the Post Ed Board in session laying out a proposal that they printed in an earlier PR op ed piece.

    The day after I followed up with CEO Ken Ross who indicated that he didn’t know what the Post was talking about and how reporters always get it wrong.  In other words he denied its existence.

    Pinnacol never proposed an offer to the committee, there was no testimony about any such offer, they didn’t ask for any, there were no documents to support such an offer and we I asked for them in an open records request they said no documents existed.

    And while Pinnacol tried to strike a deal to privatize with CACI, they did not approach the committee with this and in fact withdrew it when several members of the business community expressed their strong opposition.

    To criticize us for not accepting an offer that never was is truly Alice in Wonderland.

    What’s more amazing is that the ed board apparently does not care that:

    injured workers are NOT getting the medical treatment and benefits the current law says they are entitled to; or

    that Pinnacol is paying bonuses that incentivize the denial of claims and medical treatment;

    or that they are spying and harassing thousands of injured workers even though only 10 (out of 55,000 claims, .02%) are actually convicted of fraud.

    Several people testified that they lost EVERYTHING because of Pinnacol’s failure and were in foreclosure and filing bankruptcy.

    1.    Not really.  Given the ed board’s positions on other labor-related issues over the past few years, opposition to worker’s comp benefits for injured workers should not be that big of a surprise.

       I’m waiting for Dean Singleton to come out in favor repeal of minimum wage or maximum hours legislation as being bad for the economy.

          1. Yeah, it’s been a pretty regular diversion to try and change the subject away from denying claims and medical care for injured workers, bonuses to deny claims and lavish exec compensation and entertainment expenses.  

            But the ethics issue is quite real.  Because the committee would be comprised of a majority of Pinnacol’s policyholders, their CEO, the Pinnacol Board member and another citizen member who had received almost $500k in marketing fees from Pinnacol, I knew I would want an independent ethics analysis.  I also wanted an opinion to see if my past expertise in handling workers comp claims was an ethics issue.  

            The independent ruling from the non-partisan Office of Legislative Legal Services on my expertise was “no conflict”.  I asked and had that answered before I would even start the committee.

            I had the memo prepared with the full analysis and gave to everyone to review the ethics rules and laws to read, sign and acknowledge.

            It is interesting to note that it is those people who refused to sign the ethics acknowledgment that are trying to cast stones:  CEO Ken Ross, Board Pres. Johnson, Mitchell, Harvey, Gerou, B. Gardner.

            (It was signed and returned by:  myself, Rep. Pace, Rep. Ryden, Sen. Tochtrop, Sen. Hodge, Rep. Miklosi, Pete Meersman, Dr. Parry, and Mark Simon.)

            1. I appreciate it, and I’m happy to see you addressed the ethics issue straightforwardly.

              One point of clarification:  the memo (that you passed around to everyone) acknowledged that you didn’t have an ethics conflict, right?  So, by refusing to sign it, some people refused to acknowledge that you did not have a conflict?  If so, their refusal to sign seemed to foreshadow their current casting of stones.

            2.  . . .away from denying claims and medical care for injured workers, bonuses to deny claims and lavish exec compensation and entertainment expenses.”

              Funny, isn’t it, how this matches some of what’s gone on with the health care reform fight — denying care for people who thought they would be covered, bonuses for denial of care, lavish exec compensation, etc.  And the often poor coverage in the news media of the patient’s side of the issue is similar with both issues.  It’s companies like Pinnacol – and some in the private health insurance business – that give the entire industry a bad name.

            3. Care to comment how Pinnocal has a $500M surplus and isn’t being asked to give back to small businesses who are struggling to maintain coverage? Or how a small company I know..WHO HAD NO LOSSES while they attempted to self insure are now being fined SEVENTY SEVEN THOUSAND dollars by Pinnocal?

              What’s your take on these facts?

              1. NCCI is an insurance funded group that has a no-bid contract to set rates for WC in Colorado.  However, an independent actuary has fairly consistently shown that rates should be about 10% less.  There is no question that the rates are high in proportion to the claims they pay out.  While the “base rate” has to be approved by the insurance commissioner, the deviations from that base rate don’t and that is yet another place where some businesses are taking a bath on rates.  There is more money that they could be distributed in dividends but as some business owners have suggested to me, “isn’t a dividend just confirmation that you over-charging my premiums?”

                I don’t know the facts of the company but I do know that if Pinnacol disagrees with how you, the business owner, on how you classify your employees, you may be in for a world of hurt.

                1. The NCCI and Pinnocal owe the small businesses of the State of Colorado an apology, and an adjustment in the rates. They also should distribute, as dividends, some stimulus dollars to every small business. Dollars well spent I’d say.

                  You’re right, they think like and act like an insurance company, with misplaced prioroties, and a bad business model within the context of the public service they should be providing.

  6. Very informative article.  I must admit I had no idea what was going on in the Pinnacol hearings, and this has been helpful in getting a basic understanding of it.

    I’m not surprised by the Denver Post’s lack of integrity on this coverage — their journalistic standards have tanked since the Rocky Mountain News went out of business. They have swung far to the right, consistently misreporting many of the summer’s town hall meetings and health care rallies to over-represent the conservative protesters. If there was a rally with 500 people and 300 were health care reformers (not protesters), we could expect the reformers to not even be mentioned by the Post coverage the next day. This happened  over and over, all summer.

    I digress…back to Morgan Carroll.

    Senator Morgan Carroll took a lot of heat from AM760 radio earlier this year about her vote on the Tuition Equity bill (despite the fact she was not the only Democrat who voted against it, she was strangely the only one held accountable for it’s failure — go figure). Although many progressives were disappointed by that T.E. decision (myself included), she deserves to be respected for all of her other impressive work, such as Chairing the Pinnacol Hearings. What a shame liberal radio scapegoated her –Senator Carroll is brilliant. The Pinnocal hearings are another great example of her standing up to corporate thugs, defending the little guy.  

    Thank-you, Senator Carroll, for your tireless efforts for your constituents, and for all of us in CO!

    1. Tuition equity was a flawed bill, but a good example of how the current Denver political scene works and treats it’s own. I think she would be called a “tall poppy” in Australia.

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

67 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!