The Effects of COVID-19 on Workers Compensation Claims: What Adjusters Should Know
As a result of the current COVID-19 epidemic, many adjusters and workers compensation professionals have been faced with determining compensability for this COVID-19 diagnosis. Those of us who deal with workers’ compensation claims regularly can argue any number of positions, including the issue of occupational disease as it is discussed in the statute. As a general rule, and by statute in most jurisdictions, employees who have been exposed to an infectious disease that exists not only in their industry but outside of it historically have not been eligible for workers compensation benefits unless that disease is an incident to a compensable injury or occupational disease. Today, many experts in our industry believe that the statutes will have to be modified given the current predicament of much of our healthcare workforce. For example, there are existing exceptions in Texas to the presumption that infectious diseases fall under the "ordinary disease of life" category. But those exceptions are limited by certain job titles, ie. peace officers, firefighters, first responders and emergency medical technicians). Labor Code section 504.055(b) applies only to a first responder who sustains a serious bodily injury, as defined by Section 1.07, Penal Code, in the course and scope [...]