The Commission on the Commonwealth’s Disability Retirement System has issued the notice found below. Senator Brownsberger serves as a co-chair of the Commission.
Notice of Public Hearings
The Commission on the Commonwealth’s Disability Retirement System
Monday, October 15th, 1-3pm
Room A-1, State House; Boston, MA
and
Thursday, October 18th, 1-3pm
Amphitheatre III (6th flr), University of Massachusetts Medical School; Worcester, MA
The Commission’s Goal:
Established as part the 2011 Pension Reform law, the commission was created to study all aspects of the ordinary and accidental disability benefits system in order to protect the integrity of the system and to consider opportunities to further enhance the system while maintaining its existing strengths.
The Commission’s Intent for Public Hearings:
The commission has convened these hearings as an opportunity to learn as much as possible about the disability benefits system, its strengths, and potential avenues for improvement. The commission wishes to learn from your experiences and insights ways in which we can maintain a fair and sustainable disability benefits system throughout the Commonwealth. To help us accomplish this, the commission poses three overarching topics for consideration:
- Adequacy/clarity of statutory qualifications for benefits
- Benefits approval process (including medical criteria and review process, re-examination, opportunities for appeal, and roles of both employers and retirement boards)
- Financial impact of existing ordinary disability, accidental disability, and involuntary retirements
Guidelines for Participants:
Individual participants will have three minutes to present oral testimony. Panels of participants will have ten minutes to present oral testimony. Please limit submissions of written testimony to five pages, which can be electronically filed by e-mailing it to dfox@mahouse.gov.
Anne Johnson Landry
Committee Counsel and Policy Advisor
Office of State Senator William N. Brownsberger