What Vocational Rehabilitation Services are Available under the Industrial Insurance Act?

The following Vocational Rehabilitation Services are available under Washington State’s Industrial Insurance Act pursuant to WAC 296-19A-020(a)-(l):

• Gathering an industrially-injured or ill worker’s work and/or education histories and physical capacities information
• Assessing an industrially-injured or ill worker’s employability
• Developing, documenting, and writing vocational rehabilitation plans
• Monitoring an injured worker’s progress during training
• Writing retraining progress reports and submitting these to the Department of Labor and Industries
• Analyzing and documenting the transferable skills of the injured or ill worker and writing a transferable skills analysis
• Performing occupational research
• Conducting labor market surveys and writing labor market survey reports
• Conducting and writing job analyses
• Communicating with industrially-injured or ill workers, employers, physicians, and others
• Developing job modifications and worksite modifications, as well as pre-employment accommodations, and writing reports for this work
• Performing work to obtain any job with any employer for injured workers referred for vocational services

An injured worker with an astute eye will immediately realize that many of the so-called “services” provided by a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor (VRC) assigned either by the Department of Labor & Industries or the Self-Insured Employer (usually acting through a Third-Party Administrator or TPA) are contrary to the interests of the injured or ill worker who believes they cannot work. In this sense, WAC 296-19A-020 provides for “disservices” to the injured workers, and the defense interests know this well!