New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans to improve injured workers’ access to medical care in her 2025 State of the State address.

Some of these initiatives are already included in Senate Bill 3005, a broad budget proposal. The address proposes:

• Automatically authorizing licensed medical providers to treat injured workers, eliminating the current Workers’ Compensation Board approval process.
• Permitting medical and surgical residents to provide care under the supervision of a licensed provider, improving access, particularly in rural areas
• Requiring carriers to make temporary medical payments for up to one year without admitting liability. Currently, they must only pay for prescription medications
• Require the Board to publish and maintain an exclusion list of providers disqualified from rendering medical care or conducting independent medical exams

Separately, the Governor plans to align the workers’ compensation fee schedule with Medicare automatic updates.