Bill Text: NY S05292 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

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

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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-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          5292
                               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
        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