Order will give workers easier access to comp for COVID

Certain classes of employees in Michigan who believe they have contracted coronavirus on the job may be entitled to workers compensation under an executive order signed Wednesday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The order provides a rebuttable presumption for workers who believe they contracted COVID-19 on the job. Eligible employees include response employees, such as ambulance operators, medical care facility workers, emergency response workers, nursing home, hospice and home health workers, law enforcement officers, firefighters, volunteer civil defense workers and state or local government employees required to work in correctional facilities, jails or detention centers.

The order retroactively applies to any listed workers who have had a positive COVID-19 test on or after March 18, 2020, assuming that those individuals sustained a personal injury unless the acquisition is effectively rebutted by the employer.

The rebuttable presumption will be in effect until the end of the state of emergency.

More insurance and workers compensation news on the coronavirus crisis here.