Oklahoma Administrative Code › Title 810 - Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Commission › Chapter 10 - Practice and Procedure › Subchapter 1 - General Provisions › Section 810:10-1-3 - Definitions

Current through Vol. 41, No. 20, July 1, 2024
In addition to the terms defined in 85A O.S. § 2, the following words and terms, when used in this Chapter, shall have the following meaning, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Acceptable Electronic Signature Technology"
means technology that is capable of creating a signature that is unique to the person using it; is capable of verification, is under the sole control of the person using it, and is linked to the data in such a manner that if the data is changed, the electronic signature is invalidated.
"Administrative Law Judge"
means an Administrative Law Judge of the Commission to whom the Commission has delegated by order or otherwise, the authority to conduct a hearing.
"Attorney"
means an attorney licensed to practice law in Oklahoma and a member in good standing of the Oklahoma Bar Association, or an out-of-state attorney.
"AWCA"
means the Administrative Workers' Compensation Act, 85A O.S. §§1, et seq.
"Business day"
means a day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday.
"Certified workplace medical plan"
means an organization that is certified by the Oklahoma State Department of Health to provide management of quality treatment to injured employees for injuries and diseases compensable pursuant to the workers' compensation laws of the State of Oklahoma.
"Claim administrator"
means the trading partner sending electronic transactions to the Commission, which can be an insurer filing directly with the Commission on its own behalf, or a servicing company/third party administrator filing on behalf of the insurer.
"Claim for compensation"
means a Commission prescribed form filed by or on behalf of an injured worker or the worker's dependents to initiate a claim for benefits pursuant to the AWCA for an alleged work injury, occupational disease or illness, or death.
"Claim Information"
means data submitted via First Report of Injury (FROI) or Subsequent Report of Injury (SROI).
"Claimant"
means a person who claims benefits for an alleged work injury, occupational disease or illness, or death, pursuant to the provisions of the AWCA.
"Commission"
means the Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Commission, a designee, or an Administrative Law Judge to whom the Commission has delegated responsibility as authorized by 85A O.S. § 21(D).
"Commission Chair"
means the Chair of the Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Commission.
"Continuance"
means postponing a hearing from the time or date set, and rescheduling it on a later time or date.
"Controverted claim"
means there has been a contested hearing before the Commission over whether there has been a compensable injury or whether the employee is entitled to temporary total disability, temporary partial disability, permanent partial disability, permanent total disability, or death compensation.
"Discovery"
means the process by which a party may, before the hearing, obtain evidence relating to the disputed issue or issues from the other parties and witnesses.
"Document"
means any written matter filed in a cause, including any attached appendices.
"EDI"
means electronic data interchange.
"Electronic Data Interchange"
means the transmission of claim information through electronic means, in a format established by the Commission.
"Electronic equivalent"
means a Commission-approved means of filing an electronic form through the Commission's case system. In all cases where a party is required to mail a Commission form to the opposing party, a copy may be sent by electronic mail when an electronic mail address is known. In all cases where a paper form is required to be filed to effect a certain purpose, an electronic equivalent, if available, may also be filed to effect that purpose.
"Electronic Signature"
means an electronic symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.
"Employee"
means any person who meets the definition provided in 85A O.S. § 2(18). For purposes of the agriculture, ranching, or horticulture exempt status defined at 85A O.S. § 2(18)(b)(2), the exemption applies to employees engaged in agriculture, ranching, or horticulture activities as defined.
(A) "Agriculture" includes farming in all its branches and among other things includes the cultivation and tillage of the soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing, and harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodities, the raising of livestock, bees, fur-bearing animals, or poultry.
(B) In general, "agricultural or horticultural commodities" refers to commodities resulting from the application of agricultural or horticultural techniques. Insofar as the term refers to products of the soil, it means commodities that are planted and cultivated by man. Among such commodities are the following: Grains, forage crops, fruits, vegetables, nuts, sugar crops, fiber crops, tobacco, and nursery products. Thus, employees engaged in growing wheat, corn, hay, onions, carrots, sugar cane, seed, or any other agricultural or horticultural commodity are engaged in "agriculture." In addition to such products of the soil, however, the term includes domesticated animals and some of their products such as milk, wool, eggs, and honey. The term does not include commodities produced by industrial techniques, by exploitation of mineral wealth or other natural resources, or by uncultivated natural growth. For example, peat humus or peat moss is not an agricultural commodity.
(C) "Livestock" is confined to the ordinary use of the word and includes only domestic animals ordinarily raised or used on farms. The term includes the following animals, among others: Cattle (both dairy and beef cattle), sheep, swine, horses, mules, donkeys, and goats. It does not include such animals as albino and other rats, mice, guinea pigs, and hamsters, which are ordinarily used by laboratories for research purposes. Fish are not "livestock", but employees employed in propagating or farming of fish may qualify for exemption.
(D) "Crops" are defined in accordance with  7 C.F.R. §
										1437.13.
(E) "Agricultural commodity", as used in this subchapter, means wheat, cotton, flax, corn, dry beans, oats, barley, rye, tobacco, rice, peanuts, soybeans, sugar beets, sugar cane, tomatoes, grain sorghum, sunflowers, raisins, oranges, sweet corn, dry peas, freezing and canning peas, forage, apples, grapes, potatoes, timber and forests, nursery crops, citrus, and other fruits and vegetables, nuts, tame hay, native grass, hemp, aquacultural species (including, but not limited to, any species of finfish, mollusk, crustacean, or other aquatic invertebrate, amphibian, reptile, or aquatic plant propagated or reared in a controlled or selected environment), or any other agricultural commodity, excluding stored grain, determined by the Board, or any one or more of such commodities, as the context may indicate.
(F) The crop, commodity, or livestock grown or raised by the employer must be federally funded and recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture to be eligible to claim this exemption under the AWCA.
"Executive Director"
means the Executive Director of the Commission.
"FROI"
means first report of injury.
"Good cause"
means, in the context of a request for continuance or failure of a party to comply with the Rules of this Chapter, circumstances beyond the party's control or that the party could not reasonably foresee. In the context of a claim, defense, or order, it means a reasonable legal basis.
"Insurance carrier"
means any stock company, mutual company, or reciprocal or interinsurance exchange authorized to write or carry on the business of workers' compensation insurance in this state, and includes an individual own risk employer or group self-insurance association duly authorized by the Commission to self fund its workers' compensation obligations.
"Insurer"
means the entity responsible for making electronic filings as prescribed by law and these rules. This term includes self-insurers.
"Joint Petition Settlement"
means a settlement between the employer/insurance carrier and the employee, of all or some issues and matters in a claim for compensation.
"Legal holiday"
means only those days declared legal holidays pursuant to 25 O.S. § 82.1 or by proclamation of the Governor of Oklahoma.
"Mandatory EDI implementation date"
means September 1, 2018.
"Mediation"
means the process of resolving disputes with the assistance of a mediator, outside of a formal administrative hearing.
"Out-of-state attorney"
means a person who is not admitted to practice law in the State of Oklahoma, but who is admitted in another state or territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, or a foreign country.
"Pro se"
means without an attorney.
"Proceeding"
means any action, case, hearing, or other matter pending before the Commission.
"Representative"
means a person designated in writing by an injured employee, person claiming a death benefit, employer, insurance carrier or health or rehabilitation provider, to assist or represent them before the Commission in a matter arising under the AWCA.
"Sanction"
means a penalty or other punitive action or remedy imposed by the Commission on an insurance carrier, representative, employee, employer, or health care provider for an act or omission in violation of the AWCA or a rule, judgment, order, or decision of the Commission.
"Self-insurer"
means any duly qualified individual employer or group self-insurance association authorized by the Commission to self fund its workers' compensation obligations.
"SROI"
means subsequent report of injury.
"Subpoena"
means a Commission issued writ commanding a person to attend as a witness to testify or to produce documents, including books, papers and tangible things, at a deposition or at a hearing.
"Trading Partner"
means an entity that has registered with the Commission to exchange data through Electronic Data Interchange.
"Workers' compensation fee schedule"
means a state mandated schedule of maximum allowable reimbursement levels for health care providers, including hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, and inpatient rehabilitation facilities, rendering reasonable and necessary health care services and supplies to an injured employee for a compensable injury pursuant to the Oklahoma workers' compensation laws.
"Written"
means that which is expressed in writing, and includes electronic records.