SB673 Summary

• Creates the "Universal Workers' Compensation Act" as an optional alternative to traditional workers' compensation, allowing employers to provide coverage for employee injuries and deaths regardless of work-relatedness under an ERISA plan structure.

• Establishes a "Center for Effective Medicine" at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences with a 9-member Clinical Effectiveness Panel to determine whether medical treatments are clinically effective or ineffective, with determinations receiving rebuttable presumption in all claims.

• Implements a unique funding and compensation structure including base premiums (minimum 2%), employer premiums (3x base), health risk premiums based on tobacco use and age, and two separate funds (coverage fund and administrative fund) per distinct policy.

• Limits the program to one company with no more than 500 employees until the General Assembly grants additional authority, and requires federal regulatory approval to operate; the act expires December 31, 2025, if no policy is issued under federal approval.

• Designates the Western District of Arkansas federal court as the forum for disputes and imposes a 2-year statute of limitations for all actions under the program.