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

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

---

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-Introduced.html

---

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          1979
                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions
                   IN ASSEMBLY
                                    January 18, 2019
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by M. of A. ORTIZ -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Labor
        AN ACT to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation  to  benefits
          for police officers, firefighters, and other emergency personnel diag-
          nosed 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, firefighter, emergency medical technician,
     4  paramedic,  emergency  dispatcher  or  other person certified to provide
     5  medical care in emergencies is diagnosed by a psychiatrist  or  psychol-
     6  ogist  to  have  post-traumatic stress disorder, it shall be presumed to
     7  have been incurred during service in the  line  of  duty  and  shall  be
     8  compensable,  unless it is shown by a preponderance of the evidence that
     9  the post-traumatic stress disorder was  caused  by  nonservice-connected
    10  risk factors or nonservice-connected exposure.  Such person who is diag-
    11  nosed with post-traumatic stress disorder within three years of the last
    12  active  date  of  employment as a police officer, firefighter, emergency
    13  medical technician, paramedic,  emergency  dispatcher  or  other  person
    14  certified  to  provide medical care in emergencies shall be eligible for
    15  benefits under this subdivision.
    16    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD06188-01-9