BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           586 (Huber)
          
          Hearing Date:  8/24/2009        Amended: 7/2/2009
                                                                    As  
          proposed to be amended
          Consultant:  Bob Franzoia       Policy Vote: L&IR 4-1
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
          BILL SUMMARY: AB 586 would extend injury presumptions of hernia,  
          cancer, leukemia, heart trouble, pneumonia, blood borne  
          infectious disease, methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus  
          skin (MRSA) infection, tuberculosis, and meningitis to members  
          of police departments at the University of California (UC) and  
          California State University (CSU).  This bill would extend the  
          injury presumptions of hernia, blood borne infectious disease,  
          or MRSA infection to members of fire departments at UC and CSU.   
          This bill would extend the injury presumptions of tuberculosis  
          and meningitis to police departments of a district.  
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2009-10      2010-11       2011-12     Fund
           Expansion of workers'  $95-$195   $190-$390   $190-$390 General
          compensation presumption                                
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the  
          Suspense File.
          
          Workers' compensation benefits are provided to employees when an  
          injury or illness results in the course of employment.  Statutes  
          specify certain medical conditions contracted by peace officers  
          and firefighters are presumed to have arisen during the course  
          of employment. 

          The addition of these presumptions will lead to increased costs  
          to the UC workers' compensation program because claims that may  
          not have been approved in the past will now automatically be  
          approved under the presumption.  There are approximately 386  
          peace officers and 45 firefighters within the UC system.  The  
          total amount of workers' compensation benefits provided to UC  










          peace officers and firefighters in 2008 was $1,548,537.  If  
          increasing the presumptions increases the benefits paid to these  
          persons by five percent to ten percent, the UC will have new  
          costs of $77,426 to $154,854 annually.  Extrapolating to CSU is  
          difficult given the differences in enrollment, number of  
          campuses, contracted services and so forth.  If CSU is, at a  
          minimum, 50 percent larger and that difference is reflected in  
          the number of peace officers and firefighter, these costs would  
          increase accordingly.

          Staff notes the proposed amendments return this bill to its  
          introduced version, which passed the Assembly Insurance  
          Committee 7-2.  Additional entities have since been added.