By: Zachary Otto / Sales Executive
Following the withdrawal of Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission’s emergency ruling, Governor Pritzker signed H.B. 2455 into law on June 5th. The purpose of the bill is to provide death benefits for first responders presumably infected with COVID-19 on duty.
The bill addresses death benefits for firefighters who passed after testing positive for the virus by stating that the first responder must have contracted the virus between March 9th and December 31st, 2020. The date of contraction can either be the date of diagnosis or when the individual was unable to work due to symptoms that were then later diagnosed as a COVID-19 infection.
The bill also amends the workers’ Occupational Disease Act with respect to claims related to COVID-19. In doing so, it opens the door for Fire Districts to refute a claim under the following grounds:
- The employee was working from home for at least 14 days prior to the injury claim.
- Can provide proof that the employee was exposed by another source outside the workplace.
- Can demonstrate the workplace was following current public health guidelines for two weeks prior to the employee claimed to contract the virus.
In the case of a Fire Protection District that was responding to calls around COVID-19 daily, any of these grounds may be difficult to prove.
Generally speaking, if a district is showing a history of injury claims, one can expect the Workers’ Compensation insurance company to increase pricing to recoup losses. The good news for Fire Protection Districts is that H.B. 2544 states that any claims made around COVID-19 will not be factored into the pricing of the District’s Workers’ Compensation coverage for the following year.