PERSONAL INJURY COVERAGE; FIRST RESPONDERS S.B. 161:
SUMMARY OF INTRODUCED BILL
IN COMMITTEE
Senate Bill 161 (as introduced 3-18-25)
PERSONAL INJURY COVERAGE; FIRST RESPONDERS S.B. 161:
SUMMARY OF INTRODUCED BILL
IN COMMITTEE
Senate Bill 161 (as introduced 3-18-25)
CONTENT
The bill would amend Chapter 4 (Occupational Diseases and Disablements) of the Worker's Disability Compensation Act to extend personal injury coverage for respiratory and heart diseases to part-time, paid-on-call, and volunteer members of police departments, fire departments, public fire authorities, or individuals who work as forest fire officers.
Generally, the Act designates the paid compensation for personal injury or death during employment as workers' compensation. "Personal injury" includes a disease or disability that is due to causes and conditions that are characteristic of and peculiar to the business of the employer and that arises out of and during the employment. Chapter 4 of the Act specifies that personal injury includes respiratory and heart diseases or illnesses resulting from those diseases for full-time employees of the fire and police departments described below.
The bill would extend Chapter 4’s additional personal injury coverage to the following individuals:
-- Part-time, paid-on-call, or volunteer members of a fire department of an airport operated by a county, public airport authority, or State university or college.
-- Part-time or paid-on-call members of a police department of a city, township, or village.
-- Part-time, paid-on-call, or volunteer members of a fire or public safety department of a city, township, or village or a public fire authority.
-- Forest fire officers.
Chapter 4 also specifies that respiratory and heart diseases or illnesses resulting from them are presumed to be a result of employment and in the absence of evidence to the contrary.
PREVIOUS LEGISLATION
(This section does not provide a comprehensive account of previous legislative efforts on this subject matter.)
Senate Bill 161 is a reintroduction of Senate Bill 244 from the 2023-2024 Legislative Session and Senate Bill 877 from the 2021-2022 Legislative Session. Senate Bill 244 was referred to the Senate Committee on Labor but saw no further action.
Legislative Analyst: Alex Krabill
FISCAL IMPACT
The bill would likely result in an increase in workers’ compensation claims and payments for local government employers throughout the State to cover claims for part-time, on-call, and
volunteers. A total or average increase in payments cannot be calculated as the information is not available.
A number of unknown factors contribute to the difficulty of making a precise calculation of additional costs for local governments, including the number of employees (full-time, part-time, on-call, and volunteers) that would be covered for respiratory and heart diseases and related illnesses, the existing number of claims, and the median amount of benefits paid for that category of claims. Roughly speaking, there are over 600 law enforcement agencies statewide employing over 17,000 officers. Likewise, there are over 1,000 fire departments that employ roughly 35,000 firefighters. There are likely several thousand more employees who would be added as conservation officers or sheriff deputies, but the number of volunteers across all categories is not certain.
The Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity does report that benefits for workers compensation claims are capped at $1,100 per week and the average benefit payment is about $500 per week; however, this average amount is not specific to claims arising from respiratory and heart diseases and illnesses resulting from those diseases.
There is currently, $4.0 million that is annually deposited into the Christopher R. Slezak First Responder Presumed Coverage Fund, from internet gaming revenue. This is used to support workers’ compensation claims for individuals described above, and the amount is sufficient to cover all current claims. It is unknown if this amount would be sufficient to cover future claims due to the expansion of eligible workers under the bill.