Because of a failure to write clear laws, Oklahoma leaders say, the state paid more than $90 million to insurance companies it shouldn’t have over the past five years in the form of rebates.
The rebates were paid to insurance firms that provide workers’ compensation coverage in Oklahoma and that had paid assessments required by state law to a fund called the Multiple Injury Trust Fund.
Gov. Mary Fallin and a legislative leader said lawmakers believed they had ended the rebates when they rewrote the state workers’ compensation laws in 2011 and again in 2013. However, the language intended to eliminate the rebates was either left out or not written clearly enough to ensure that happened, Fallin said in written order.
The Oklahoma Tax Commission continued paying rebates to more than 250 insurance companies from fiscal years 2011 to 2015.