BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1035
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1035 (John A. Pérez)
As Amended April 22, 2014
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: | |(May 20, 2013) |SENATE: |35-0 |(April 28, |
| | | | | |2014) |
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(vote not relevant)
Original Committee Reference: L. GOV.
SUMMARY : Extends the statute of limitations for filing by
dependents of specified public safety officers for workers'
compensation death benefits.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of this bill,
and instead:
1)Provide that the dependents of active firefighters and
specified peace officers who die as a result of certain
medical conditions have 420 weeks from the date of injury, but
in no case more than one year from the date of death, to file
a claim for workers' compensation death benefits.
2)Specify that dependency is a factual matter that is determined
by the status of the claimant at the time of death of the
public safety officer.
3)Limit the conditions which for these public safety officers
are presumed to be work-related, for which the extended
limitations period applies, to the following:
a) Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA);
b) Tuberculosis;
c) Bloodborne infectious diseases; and
d) Cancer.
4)Require the date of injury for any of these conditions to have
been during the employee's active service.
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5)Specify that the extended limitations period does not apply to
cases that have been adjudicated, finalized, or for which the
existing limitations period lapsed on or before December 31,
2014.
6)Adopt a January 1, 2019, sunset date for the extended
limitations period.
7)Express the intent of the Legislature that the Administrative
Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation collect data
prior to the sunset date for the purposes of determining
whether the extended limitations period established by the
bill is adequate for the families of fallen public safety
officers.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides for a comprehensive system of workers' compensation
benefits for workers who suffer injury or illness that arise
out of or in the course of employment.
2)Provides generally that the employee has the burden to prove
that an injury or illness is work-related.
3)Establishes a rebuttable presumption that certain conditions,
including the medical conditions for which the bill
establishes an extended limitations period, are work-related
when suffered by specified firefighter and peace officer
employees.
4)Provides generally that a claim for workers' compensation
benefits must be filed within one year of the date of injury.
5)Establishes for a limited number of conditions extended
periods within which the claim must be filed, which in the
case of cancer is up to 240 weeks after the employee has
terminated employment.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose. The purpose of this bill is straightforward - it
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recognizes that the advancement of medical science has allowed
patients who suffer certain serious diseases to battle those
diseases, often for long periods of time. This is
particularly true of cancer, which can go into remission for
years before finally taking the patient's life. For certain
public safety officers who contract cancer, their survivors
can be unfairly denied workers' compensation death benefits
simply because the officer successfully battled the cancer for
longer than the statute of limitations period. The bill is
designed to remedy this unfairness.
2)Non-cancer conditions. Although the bill includes
tuberculosis, MRSA, and other bloodborne infectious diseases
within the new extended limitations period, it is unlikely
that many of these cases will extend beyond the current
limitations period established for those conditions. Of
course, anything is possible, and a public safety officer
could succumb to one of these conditions later than the
current limitations period. However, the primary objection to
the bill by opponents is based on increased workers'
compensation costs for public employers. Thus, the primary
issue presented by the bill is the extent to which extending
the limitations period for cancer cases is justified by the
added costs that might be incurred.
3)CHSWC study. The Commission on Health and Safety and Workers'
Compensation (CHSWC) recently heard a presentation that sought
to quantify the costs of extending the limitations period for
filing workers' compensation death benefit claims for
firefighters and peace officers. While the report is
currently in draft form, the current rough estimate on the
cost of extending the limitations period for filing for
workers' compensation death benefit claims is that it will
impact approximately 20 firefighters and peace officers and
cost between $4.25 million and $5 million per year. While the
estimate was based on an extension to 480 weeks (10 years),
rather than 420 weeks, the estimate remains a likely range.
Opponents note that this study has yet to be finalized.
4)NIOSH study. The National Institute on Occupational Safety
and Health (NIOSH) released a study of cancer incidence in
firefighters, looking at more than 30,000 firefighters, making
it one of the largest studies in this area. The sample
included firefighters from San Francisco, providing direct
applicability from the study to California's workers. The
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NIOSH study found elevated cancer incidence (6% to 12%
increase) and mortality (10% to 18% increase) when compared to
the general population. This included digestive cancers (10%
to 25% increase in incidence; 18% to 34% increase in
mortality) and respiratory cancers (8% to 24% increase in
incidence; 4% to 17% increase in mortality). Opponents do not
dispute these findings, but point out that the bill applies to
all cancers that afflict any of the public safety officers
covered by the bill.
5)Related legislation. AB 2052 (Gonzalez) of the current
legislative session, was recently passed by the Assembly
Insurance Committee. It is currently in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee. AB 2052 proposes to expand the list
of peace officers who receive the benefit of the various
presumptions that certain conditions are compensable.
Currently, the Labor Code specifies which of the numerous
classes of peace officers employed by various state and local
governments benefit from presumptions. AB 2052 provides that
all peace officers as defined in the Penal Code should be
treated equally with respect to obtaining the benefits of the
presumptions. Opponents are concerned that, were AB 2052 also
enacted, the costs associated with AB 1035 would be
substantially higher than current estimates.
6)Prior legislation. AB 2451 (John A. Pérez) of 2012, 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
was vetoed by Governor Brown. In his veto message, Governor
Brown cited the fiscal impacts and the lack of data. The veto
message, in part, provided:
. . . . This measure seeks to redress a problem whose
scope is not fully knowable. Proponents cite the case
of the firefighter who dies a lingering and painful
death from cancer and note that if that death occurs
even one day past an arbitrary statute of limitation -
originally established in 1913 - the surviving
dependent family members are denied substantial death
benefits.
Meanwhile opponents decry any expansion of this nearly
100 year old limitation as wildly fiscally imprudent,
opening the doors to fiscal ruin and damnation of our
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efforts to restore fiscal sanity to our state. . . .
What is needed is rational, thoughtful consideration
of balancing the serious fiscal constraints faced at
all levels of government against our shared priority
to adequately and fairly compensate the families of
those public safety heroes who succumb to work-related
injuries and disease. . . . .
I understand that the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health is in the midst of one
of the largest studies of firefighters and risks of
death from cancer and other job related disease ever
conducted. It is my sincere hope that this study, as
well as data collected through our comprehensive
reform of the workers' compensation system, will
provide a basis to make a more informed policy and
research based decision on this question in the
future.
AB 1373 (John A. Pérez) of the 2013-14 legislative session was
similar to AB 2451. It was also vetoed by the Governor. The
Governor stated:
This measure is identical to the one I vetoed last
year.
At that time, I outlined the information I wanted to
see before I would be in a position to properly
evaluate the implications of this bill. The
information is still forth coming.
It is not clear whether the studies noted above
satisfy the Governor's call for more information by
which to evaluate the proposal.
Analysis Prepared by : Mark Rakich / INS. / (916) 319-2086
FN: 0003229
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