Tag: Workers Comp

Lawmakers in three states this week filed proposed legislation addressing cancer diagnoses for professional and volunteer firefighters.

Nebraska lawmakers on Tuesday introduced Legislature Bill 501, which would amend the workers compensation law to state that any cancer resulting in either temporary or permanent disability or death is recognized as an occupational disease and compensable under the law.

Under the bill, for cancer to be compensable it must be shown that the firefighter was exposed on the job to certain carcinogens known or suspected to cause different forms of cancer.

The bill creates a rebuttable presumption that a firefighter’s cancer arose out of and in the course of his or her employment if the cancer is diagnosed during employment.

There would also be a rebuttable presumption that a retired firefighter’s cancer was also connected to employment if diagnosed within a specific timeframe after retirement.

Connecticut legislators on Wednesday filed House Bill 5857, which would make cancer in professional and volunteer firefighters a presumptive line-of-duty injury or cause of death and would make firefighters eligible for workers comp and other benefits.

Eligibility is reserved for firefighters who have served a minimum of five years and who were nonsmokers and did not have a cancer history prior to becoming a firefighter.

Mississippi legislators on Monday introduced House Bill 784, which would amend the state’s First Responders Health and Safety Act to provide that cancer benefits issued to first responders are paid by the Attorney General’s Office from funds appropriated by the legislature and no longer through money from insurance policies.

The bill would also repeal a current law that says the cost of purchasing insurance policies that provide for cancer coverage must be borne by the first responders’ employers.  

 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Wednesday issued safety citations to Amazon Inc. and issued hazard alert letters after inspections at three warehouses found workers exposed to ergonomic hazards. 

U.S. Department of Labor’s Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker said on a conference call Wednesday that the multi-facility investigation at the three warehouses — in Deltona, Florida; Waukegan, Illinois; and New Windsor, New York — is part of “an ongoing nationwide investigation of Amazon,” which has “created hazardous work conditions and processes that are designed for speed” and cause numerous ergonomic injuries for workers.

“Our investigations determined warehouse workers are required to perform tasks at a fast pace, including manually lifting items from trailers, removing packages from a conveyor and stacking them,” he said, adding that the company “requires workers to work in awkward positions that make them prone to injuries; these tasks are performed up to nine times a minute.”

“Amazon has prided itself on being the gold standard of logistics and warehousing, famous for its global operation system that provides fast delivery to customers,” he said. “While Amazon has developed impressive systems to make sure its customers’ orders are shipped efficiently and quickly, the company has failed to show the same level of commitment to protecting the safety and well-being of its workers.”

Similar investigations at three Amazon locations in Aurora, Colorado; Nampa, Idaho; and Castleton, New York; are ongoing, according to OSHA.

Amazon said the allegations don’t reflect “the reality of safety” at its sites and it will appeal the citations. 

“We look forward to sharing more during our appeal about the numerous safety innovations, process improvements and investments we’re making to further reduce injuries,” an Amazon spokeswoman said in a statement.

 

 

 

New York lawmakers have proposed amending the state’s workers compensation law to make work-related opioid overdose deaths a compensable claim.

Assembly Bill 1499, filed Tuesday, states that the death of an injured worker due to opioid overdose would be compensable in situations where the injured worker was prescribed the painkilling drug as a result of a workplace injury.

The measure would amend the section of the workers compensation law dealing with presumptions.

According to a report from the National Safety Council, some courts have ruled that opioid overdose deaths are compensable in situations where injured workers died while taking doctor-prescribed opioids to treat occupational injuries.

 

Lawmakers in Connecticut will consider a second bill that would amend the state’s workers compensation law permitting post-traumatic stress disorder as a compensable injury to all workers who witness certain adverse events.

S.B. 491, filed Wednesday, follows S.B. 91, which was filed Jan. 12. Both bills would amend the state’s law on benefits for police officers, parole officers or firefighters suffering post-traumatic stress disorder after a “qualifying event,” which includes witnessing death and grave injuries, to include “all employees covered by workers compensation law.”

The new bill was referred to Committee on Labor and Public Employees.

This is the second year Connecticut lawmakers are considering such legislation. The 2022 bill unanimously passed the Senate but failed to gain traction in the House despite a “favorable report,” according to the state’s legislature website.

 

 

Nearly a dozen states this year have introduced legislation to expand or enhance workers compensation benefits for employees who suffer mental injuries by presuming they are suffered in the course of their work.

“The trend will continue,” said Brian Allen, Salt Lake City-based vice president of government affairs, pharmacy solutions, for Mitchell International Inc., a subsidiary of Enlyte Group.

Most of the bills apply only to first responders and propose changes to coverage for post-traumatic stress disorder, yet three separate bills filed this month in Virginia would expand the definition of mental injury beyond PTSD to include anxiety and depression for first responders. And a bill introduced in Connecticut would expand PTSD presumption to all workers who witness a “qualifying event” such as a death. A similar bill last year failed to gain traction.

Connecticut and Virginia also this month introduced bills that would expand the definition of first responders to include dispatchers.

Last year saw a similar surge in legislation aimed at making it easier to claim comp for mental injuries, with mixed results suggesting a slowing down of successful bills. In 2022, only three states enacted changes after more than 60 bills were introduced, according to two separate analyses by the National Council on Compensation Insurance. Optum Workers’ Comp and Auto No-Fault in 2021 published findings that over half of the states have made changes to mental injury coverage in workers compensation since 2018.

Some of the concerns among those opposing such legislation are unknown costs, according to experts.

NCCI’s assistant actuary, Bruce Spidell, said the data on PTSD presumption claims is “scarce” and that each state’s presumption parameters are different, making it challenging to predict claim activity. “Every single (law) is different and there’s just not really a benchmark,” he said. “We just don’t know how much this is going to cost.”

Police and fire departments are typically self-insured, adding to the difficulty in gathering data on costs, he said.

The issue hit a roadblock for that reason in 2022 as California lawmakers aimed to expand a 2020 PTSD presumption law — set to expire in 2025 — to dispatchers and several other classes of emergency response personnel.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a Sept. 29, 2022, letter to legislators on why he would not sign such a bill, said that “expanding coverage of the PTSD injury presumption to significant classes of employees before any studies have been conducted on the existing class for whom the presumption is temporarily in place could set a dangerous precedent that has the potential to destabilize the workers compensation system going forward, as stakeholders push for similarly unsubstantiated presumptions.”

Mr. Allen said the uncertainty surrounding cost is the top issue: “You always try to look to figure out if we make this policy change, what is it going to look like five years from now, 10 years from now. What’s the upside? What’s the downside?”

The way many current laws are written, most first responders would qualify for coverage if they are diagnosed with PTSD, he said.

“Potential for abuse” is another issue, Mr. Allen said, referring to the possibility of PTSD claims being filed by those who are already retiring, resulting in higher benefits.

While opposition to such bills has typically been easy to come by, few municipal groups are speaking out. Calls and inquiries to several state groups that advocate for cities and other jurisdictions seeking comment were not returned.

Michelle Gowdy, executive director of the Virginia Municipal League, wrote in an email that the organization “continues to monitor this issue, but we are not in a position to comment at this time.” 

The mental health of first responders is “a real issue out there,” Mr. Allen said. “The question is how do we approach it? How do we deal with it? What’s the appropriate way to cover it?”

Bills allowing certain types of alternative medical treatment, including telemedicine counseling sessions, in workers compensation cases were introduced Thursday by New York lawmakers.

Assembly Bill 1014 would permit injured workers receiving comp benefits to participate in telehealth services for psychological testing, treatment and counseling by psychiatrists, psychologists and clinical social workers.

A second measure, Assembly Bill 1204, would amend the state workers compensation law by authorizing treatment of worker injuries by occupational therapy assistants and physical therapy assistants.

The assistants would be required to work under the direct supervision of licensed occupational and physical therapists.

 

An Illinois appeals court has reinstated the workers compensation benefits of a crossing guard injured in a slip-and-fall incident, ruling that a lower court was wrong to overturn the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission’s awarding of medical benefits in the case. 

The First District Appellate Court of Illinois, Workers’ Compensation Commission Division Thursday determined that the commission was correct to award benefits to Jacqueline MacDonnell-Dayhoff after she fractured her wrist when she slipped on a patch of ice in a parking lot upon her arrival to work in February 2014.

An arbitrator in July 2019 found that the claimant did not sustain a work-related injury and denied her benefits, but the commission later reversed that determination, finding that while the parking space where the woman fell was open to the general public, the police department allowed employees (including civilian employees such as crossing guards) to park there, and therefore her injury was compensable. 

The Circuit Court of Cook County reversed the commission’s decision in November 2021, finding that the claimant’s injury did not occur in a parking lot provided by the Village of Western Springs Police Department, and that it did not arise in the course of her employment. 

The appeals court said although slip-and-fall incidents that occur while an employee is walking to work off-premises are generally not compensable, recovery is permitted when the worker is injured in a parking lot provided and maintained by the employer.

In this case, the appeals judges agreed with the commission that the accident occurred in a municipal-owned parking lot and that the injury arose out of and in the course of the claimant’s employment.

 

 

 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations to a New England energy provider for two willful and three serious violations following a worker’s death this past summer.

OSHA proposed $333,560 in fines against Massachusetts-based Eversource Energy Service Co. following an investigation into the July 12, 2022, workplace fatality. 

An employee who was performing maintenance work on underground electrical equipment died after suffering severe burns following an arc flash and blast at the jobsite. 

Inspectors said the company failed to fully de-energize the electrical equipment during maintenance work, failed to reasonably estimate the heat energy employees would have been exposed to, and failed to train workers on electrical equipment hazards in enclosed spaces.

Eversource provides electricity to customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut.

 

 

 

Oklahoma and Nebraska joined the list of states aiming to revamp procedures for addressing post-traumatic stress disorders for first responders.

S.B. 333, prefiled in Oklahoma for consideration on Feb. 6, states that the limits on a mental injury or illness that is not caused by a physical injury to the employee shall not apply to a first responder. The bill creates limits on disability pay for such injuries at 70% of the first responder’s pay, not to exceed the state average weekly wage, and for no longer than 52 weeks. 

Nebraska lawmakers on Friday introduced bills that would amend the state’s workers compensation, PTSD law for first responders. Legislative Bill 460 provides clarification on the state’s PTSD law for first responders by stating that it is “irrelevant in determining whether a first responder has a compensable injury” when the “fact that the employment conditions causing a first responder’s mental injuries or mental illness were an expected part of job duties” and whether “the employee had received resilience training… or other similar training.”

That bill would also provide for reimbursement for mental health examinations and resilience training, and set reimbursement rates for such services.

In addition to also addressing resilience training, the similar Legislative Bill 464 adds language that requires the Department of Health and Human Services to maintain and annually update records of first responders who have completed annual resilience training. 

 

 

 

 

Oklahoma lawmakers are set to consider a bill that would provide limits on when a cumulative trauma workers compensation claim can be filed.

S.B. 411, scheduled to be introduced Feb. 6, would amend state law to say the “date of injury for cumulative trauma shall be the last date of injurious exposure prior to the filing date of the Employee’s First Notice of Claim for Compensation.”

Under existing law, employees or surviving family members must file their claim within six months after the first distinct manifestation of the disease or cumulative trauma or within six months after death.