We reported a few weeks ago that the 2016 Georgia General Assembly passed three bills revising portions of the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act: House Bill (“HB”) 818, HB 402, and HB 216. With most revisions to the Workers’ Compensation Act, the General Assembly is usually voting to approve changes that come from the Chairman’s Advisory Council. As a result, they are usually signed by the Governor. Interestingly, there was much more debate than usual on the firefighter issue, and on May 3, 2016, Governor Nathan Deal vetoed HB 216.
HB 216 was enacted to amend O.C.G.A. § 34-9-280, the occupational disease statute, in order to allow firefighters, the opportunity to pursue and to receive workers’ compensation benefits if they have been diagnosed with cancer. As originally proposed, the bill would have provided a presumption to firefighters for certain listed diseases. However, that version did not have enough support. A compromise effort shifted the presumption to a preponderance of evidence, limited the scope of diseases to cancer, and applied only to firefighters. In the Senate Insurance Committee, and on the Senate floor debate, there was an effort to expand the scope of the exception to all employees (not just firefighters), to all diseases (not just cancer), but with a higher standard of proof of clear and convincing evidence. That also did not have enough support, so the carve-out exception ended up being limited to firefighters, to cancer, and the proof being by a preponderance of the evidence.
Governor Deal stated, “Firefighters play an integral role in keeping Georgians safe, their unselfish everyday sacrifice does not go unnoticed by this office and they will continue to have my support. However, while the authors’ intent of this bill is respected, I am concerned that codifying an exception for one occupation at this relatively low standard of proof with no time limitation on diagnosis or restriction on eligible types of cancer is a broad solution for a problem not yet abundantly demonstrated in Georgia. The Association County Commissioners of Georgia have also expressed concern that the shift in this burden of proof may potentially lead to tremendous uncertainty in projecting the future financial liability for workers’ compensation. Similarly, the Georgia Municipal Association is concerned that HB 216 makes no distinction between paid and volunteer firefighters. Paid employees are automatically granted workers’ compensation coverage, while cities and counties must affirmatively vote to include volunteer firefighters in their coverage. Finally, since I took office, I am unaware of any firefighter that has filed a workers’ compensation claim for a cancer diagnosis. Signing this bill into law has the potential to exhaust our State Board of Workers’ Compensation and our state judicial system with litigation at the expense of our cities and counties. For these reasons, I VETO HB 216.”
Until HB 216 passed in April, cancer had always been considered an ordinary disease of life, which was excluded from coverage as an occupational disease under O.C.G.A. § 34-9-280(d). The added language would have provided an exception for firefighters. The exception specifically allowed a firefighter to secure workers’ compensation benefits upon showing by a preponderance of evidence, including medical evidence, that a cancer diagnosis is attributable to the firefighter’s performance of his or her duties as a firefighter. While House Bills 818 and 402 will take effect on July 1, 2016, the status quo remains in place for firefighters.
If you have any questions regarding this change and/or any other issues, please feel free to call me or any other member of the Workers’ Compensation team at Goodman McGuffey LLP.
