Bill Text: NY A01979 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Relates to benefits for police officers, correction officers, firefighters, and other emergency personnel diagnosed with PTSD by making their injury compensable if it cannot be shown, by a preponderance of evidence, that the PTSD was caused by factors unrelated to their occupation.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-08 - referred to labor [A01979 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-A01979-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                         1979--A
                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions
                   IN ASSEMBLY
                                    January 18, 2019
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by M. of A. ORTIZ -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Labor -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered  reprinted  as
          amended and recommitted to said committee
        AN  ACT  to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation to benefits
          for police officers,  correction  officers,  firefighters,  and  other
          emergency personnel diagnosed with PTSD
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 10 of  the  workers'  compensation
     2  law is amended by adding a new paragraph (c) to read as follows:
     3    (c) Where a police officer, correction officer, firefighter, emergency
     4  medical  technician,  paramedic,  emergency  dispatcher  or other person
     5  certified to provide medical care  in  emergencies  is  diagnosed  by  a
     6  psychiatrist  or psychologist to have post-traumatic stress disorder, it
     7  shall be presumed to have been incurred during service in  the  line  of
     8  duty  and shall be compensable, unless it is shown by a preponderance of
     9  the evidence that the  post-traumatic  stress  disorder  was  caused  by
    10  nonservice-connected  risk  factors  or  nonservice-connected  exposure.
    11  Such person who is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder  within
    12  three  years  of the last active date of employment as a police officer,
    13  correction officer, firefighter, emergency medical technician,  paramed-
    14  ic,  emergency  dispatcher  or other person certified to provide medical
    15  care in emergencies shall be eligible for benefits under  this  subdivi-
    16  sion.
    17    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD06188-02-9