HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2288
TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2018
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to workers' compensation.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that firefighters can be exposed to contaminants that are known or suspected carcinogens in the course of performing their duty. Although fire departments are expected to use the best equipment and management practices available, firefighters are still regularly exposed to multiple carcinogens, since residential and vehicle fires release highly concentrated toxicants from burning plastics and other synthetics. In October 2013, researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health published a study that found that firefighters have a higher cancer risk than the general population. The study looked at cancer diagnoses and deaths among thirty thousand firefighters from the Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco fire departments and found that oral cancer and cancers of the respiratory, digestive, and urinary systems were the most common types found.

The legislature further finds that House Concurrent Resolution No. 32, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, Regular Session of 2016, convened a task force to examine cancer in the firefighting profession. The task force found that some states, including Arizona, California, Nevada, North Dakota, and Virginia, have statutorily provided for special benefit programs for firefighters diagnosed with cancer due to the higher occupational risk they assume in the performance of their essential public service. Providing sufficient worker’s compensation coverage for firefighters will ensure firefighters receive proper medical treatment in a timely manner and also lessen the emotional toil, financial burden, and the impacts of a decreased quality of life on firefighters diagnosed with cancer, as well as on their families.

The purpose of this Act is to ensure that firefighters continue to receive comprehensive medical care for work-related injuries, including various forms of cancer. The legislature notes that this Act does not create any new benefit or enhance the existing benefits available to firefighters. Rather, it improves firefighters' access to comprehensive medical coverage while addressing medical coverage for targeted organs identified in a 2006 University of Cincinnati study related to diseases arising out of and in the course of employment.

SECTION 2. Chapter 386, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding two new sections to part II be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§386-   Medical care, services, and supplies; controverted claims. In the event of a controverted claim, the injured employee's private health care plan shall pay for or provide medical care, services, and supplies in accordance with the private health care contract. When the claim is accepted or determined to be compensable, the employer shall reimburse the private health care plan and the injured employee in such amounts as authorized by this chapter and rules adopted by the department.

§386-   Medical care, services, and supplies for firefighters suffering from cancer. (a) If a claim for leukemia, multiple myeloma, non-hodgkin lymphoma, or cancer of the lung, brain, stomach, esophagus, intestines, rectum, kidney, bladder, prostate, or testes filed by a firefighter with five or more years of service as a firefighter is accepted or determined to be compensable, the provisions of section 386-21 remain applicable except that the employer shall be liable for medical care, services, and supplies for a minimum of one hundred ten per cent, and not to exceed       per cent of fees prescribed in the Medicare Resource Based Relative Value Scale applicable to Hawaii as prepared by the United States Department of Health and Human Services."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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Report Title:

Workers' Compensation; Medical Conditions; Firefighters

Description:

Requires an injured workers' private health insurance to pay for medical services and supplies when workers' compensation claim is controverted by an employer. Under certain conditions, increases employer's percentage of liability for medical services and supplies when firefighter has compensable claim for cancer.

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.