Statewide Employee Benefit Programs - Worker's Compensation

The purpose of the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Act, G.S. 97-1, is to provide protection and benefits to all employees, in the private and government sectors, who are injured on the job. The Act is not only to provide swift and certain remedy to an injured employee, but also to insure a limited and determinate liability for the employer. The North Carolina Industrial Commission (NCIC) was created by the Workers’ Compensation Act to administer the provisions of the Act.

In 1996, the State recognized that most agencies were only paying the escalating workers’ compensation claims and were not managing the cases effectively. A pilot program was established and, through the selective bidding process, the State contracted with a third party administrator (TPA) to manage the State’s workers’ compensations claims. This program has been in existence for 12 years and is currently utilized by all state agencies, except for the Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Instruction, and universities. The Office of the State Controller (OSC) employees work daily, with the TPA, to insure that daily funding requirements are met and that employees and providers are paid in a timely manner.