BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 1373 (Perez, J) - Workers Compensation: Firefighters and
Peace Officers
Amended: July 1, 2013 Policy Vote: L&IR 4-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 19, 2013
Consultant: Robert Ingenito
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 1373 would double the time frame to request
death benefits for firefighters and peace officers, from 240
weeks to 480 weeks from the date of injury, if specified
criteria are met.
Fiscal Impact: There would be an increase in workers'
compensation costs for state employees who are firefighters and
peace officers, as specified. The specific state departments
that would be impacted are the Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection (CAL FIRE) and the California Highway Patrol (CHP).
The amount of the increase is unknown (see Staff Comments).
Background: Presumptions for peace officers and firefighters
have been included in workers' compensation law since 1917.
While their scope has grown, the fundamental idea behind each
presumption is similar: such injuries are intuitively likely to
be job related, and therefore occupational injuries compensable
in the workers' compensation system, but are difficult for the
employee to prove.
Current law requires, with certain exceptions, that the
collection of workers' compensation death benefits must be
commenced one year from (1) the date of death where death occurs
within one year from date of injury; or (2) the date of last
furnishing of any benefits where death occurs more than one year
from the date of injury; or (3) the date of death, where death
occurs more than one year after the date of injury and
compensation benefits have been furnished. No such proceedings
may be commenced more than one year after the date of death, nor
more than 240 weeks from the date of injury.
AB 1373 (John Perez)
Page 1
Advances in medical science are allowing patients with cancer or
infectious diseases to have a longer lifespan than was
previously the case. The National Cancer Institute reported in
2011-12 that the cancer survival rate is increasing;
specifically, two-thirds of patients diagnosed in 2003 surviving
five years from diagnosis. New drug treatments are also
allowing Hepatitis C and HIV patients to enjoy a longer
lifespan. An employee with a work-related injury of cancer,
tuberculosis, blood-borne infectious disease, or MRSA skin
infection, may not succumb to the illness until after the
current limit of 240 weeks (almost five years) from the date of
injury has elapsed, thus denying death benefits for the
surviving family.
Proposed Law: This bill would increase the time frame, from a
maximum 240 weeks to 480 weeks from the date of injury, for
family members of a deceased peace officer or firefighter, as
specified, to file a workers' compensation death benefits claim
if the death of the employee resulted from any of the following:
(1) Cancer; (2) Tuberculosis; (3) Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcusaureus (MRSA) skin infections; or (4) Bloodborne
infectious disease. It is not retroactive to previously
adjudicated or finalized claims.
Related Legislation: AB 2451 (Perez) would have allowed
dependents of a firefighter or peace officer who dies of certain
occupational ailments to file for workers' compensation death
480 weeks from the date of injury. AB 2451 is identical to AB
1373, and was vetoed by the Governor. In his veto message, the
Governor cited the bill's fiscal impacts and the lack of data.
Staff Comments: The Office of the Legislative Counsel has keyed
this bill "non-fiscal." However, the purview of this Committee,
pursuant to Joint Rule 10.5, is to review and analyze bills that
would, among other things, result in a substantial expenditure
of state money. Thus, even though AB 1373 was keyed
"non-fiscal," the Committee requested the bill to examine the
extent to which it might potentially increase state costs.
Under current Appropriations Committee rules, bills are referred
to its suspense file if they increase costs for any state fund,
in any fiscal year, by specified thresholds. Those thresholds
are $50,000 for the General Fund, and $150,000 for most other
state funds.
AB 1373 (John Perez)
Page 2
Current state law refers to peace officers/firefighters in at
least 57 civil service position classifications across 22 state
departments. AB 1373 appears to be limited to peace
officers/firefighters in just two state departments: CAL FIRE
and CHP. The former is predominantly funded from the General
Fund, while the latter's funding comes from a special fund.
Generally speaking, data at the state level specifically
quantifying death claims and related costs from employees (both
past and present) who have died from presumption-related
injuries do not exist, as state departments do not break out
related data to that fine of a degree. Nevertheless, available
data do indicate that each accepted death benefit claim adds
approximately $50,000 to state departments' annual workers
compensation expenditures. Using this statistic, it would take a
single claim resulting from the bill's extended timeframe to CAL
FIRE or three claims to CHP for costs to reach the Committee's
suspense file threshold. With respect to CHP, the three claims
need not be in a single fiscal year, as the aggregate impact of
one claim in each of three different years would result in costs
of $150,000 in one year, thus exceeding the Committee's suspense
threshold.
This potential in increased costs to the State would most likely
result from deaths related to cancer, as medical advances allow
those patients to have a longer lifespan. With respect to the
other three causes of death identified in the bill, current
medical science and treatment are such that timeframe between
date of injury and death would likely not exceed the 240 weeks
in current law.