Bill Text: NY S05292 | 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 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-08 - REFERRED TO LABOR [S05292 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S05292-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         5292--A

                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                     April 23, 2019
                                       ___________

        Introduced by Sen. GOUNARDES -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed  to  be  committed  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.
                                                                   LBD06188-03-9