Midwest deal with various workers’ comp issues

• Workers’ compensation for workplace-related mental injuries was a topic of interest in the Midwestern Zone this year.
• Missouri enacted two bills — SB 24 and SB 186 — establishing PTSD as a compensable occupational disease for first responders. Minnesota enacted HF 2988, which requires a study and report on workplace-related PTSD.
• Legislation is pending in Wisconsin (AB 115/SB 113) that would add certain emergency and medical workers to the same standard of PTSD diagnosis as law enforcement officers and full-time firefighters.
• Oklahoma HB 2398 and SB 333 would have included a qualified mental injury or illness sustained by a first responder as a compensable workplace injury, and Nebraska addressed mental injuries or illnesses caused by workplace violence.
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Tree worker suffers injuries

• A tree worker was rushed to the hospital after sustaining severe injuries from a fall in Marlborough, Massachusettes.
• A 38-year-old man fell at least 20 feet out of the bucket on his work truck, according to the Marlborough Fire Department.
• The man was transported via medical helicopter to a nearby hospital with injuries that officials consider to be life-threatening.
• The accident remains under investigation.
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Kentucky Supreme Court makes workers’ comp ruling

• The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled providers who treat injured workers in the state must bill the employer/insurer within 45 days, even before a workers’ comp claim has been filed.
• The provider must also bill the employer/insurer even before an employer’s liability has been established.
• The statute requiring invoices to be submitted within 45 days allows insurers to know the costs incurred after a work accident and encourages timely administration of claims.
• In 2020, an administrative law judge found that the 45-day rule did not apply until after an award was made in the claim.
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Disagreement with railway safety

• The major freight railroads have concerns over whether they will be allowed to discipline some workers who use a government hotline to report safety concerns.
• This has kept the railroads from following through on the promise they made in March to join the program after a fiery Ohio derailment prompted calls for reforms.
• Unions and workplace safety experts say the idea of disciplining workers who report safety concerns undermines the purpose of creating such a hotline because workers won’t use it if they fear retribution.
• A Georgetown University professor said it’s “dangerous companies always try to blame all unsafe conditions on workers when the statistics are really clear that it’s unsafe conditions that cause almost all injuries.”
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