Presumptions in comp fail to gain traction this year

A legislative trend to expand workers compensation presumptions for mental conditions appears to be waning, according to experts weighing in on data that showed only three states passed such bills so far this year.

“Mental injuries in workers compensation have been a focus of public policymakers for a number of years,” said Tim Tucker, Washington-based executive director of legislative & government affairs for the National Council on Compensation Insurance, which released a report on Sept. 5 that showed fewer states introducing presumption bills.

Of 64 bills introduced that addressed workers compensation and mental injuries, only three states enacted such legislation. Lawmakers in Alaska, Arizona and Oklahoma created presumptions of compensability for post-traumatic stress disorder in certain first responders, according to the report.

“In 2023, NCCI monitored 86 bills addressing workers compensation for workplace-related mental injuries, including 71 bills related to post-traumatic stress disorder,” Mr. Tucker said. In 2023, eight states enacted bills that expanded, amended or introduced mental injury coverage: Connecticut, Idaho, Missouri, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington, according to an analysis by NCCI in 2023.

Brian Allen, Salt Lake City-based vice president of government affairs for Enlyte LLC, said unknown costs have always been a concern and likely the reason behind the slowdown in such legislation.

Tallying costs related to first-responder presumptions has been a mystery — most municipalities funding the bulk of them do not report data to ratings agencies, experts say. And most presumptions are relatively new, with most states introducing them in the last several years.

“The pass rate this year was considerably lower than I expected it to be,” he said, comparing the recent figures to other years when at least a dozen or more states added workers comp presumptions or amended existing ones. “Some of the proposals that have passed are still kind of new, so they haven’t really had a chance to season in the system. We don’t know what the long-term financial impacts are.”

Several municipal organizations, which could not be reached for comment, have voiced concerns over the years. The Association of Government Risk Pools, for example, in 2019 reported that “PTSD presumptions present a host of unknowns for public entity risk pools,” citing a lack of claims history and the subjective nature of a diagnosis among the concerns. The League of California Cities that same year opposed several bills, calling worker comp presumptions “cost drivers.”

Steve Bennett, Washington-based vice president for workers compensation programs and counsel for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, wrote in an email that “presumption proposals have not gained traction in the legislatures because people understand that workers compensation is a no-fault system” and that presumptions, which automatically assume an injury took place in the workplace, “violate this core principle of workers compensation and permit recovery for injuries that had no connection to the workplace.”