BILL NUMBER: S5862

SPONSOR: MANNION
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the volunteer firefighters' benefit law, in relation to
requiring hearings on certain claims to occur within a specific amount
of time

 
PURPOSE:

The purpose of this bill is to expedite the hearing process for claims
filed under the Volunteer Firefighters' Benefit Law by requiring the
Workers' Compensation Board to hold a hearing within one hundred and
twenty days of a claim being filed.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 of this bill would require the Workers' Compensation Board to
hold a hearing within one hundred and twenty days of a claim being filed
under the Volunteer Firefighters' Benefit Law, provided that a failure
to do so would default the claim in the claimant's favor, including full
              

payment of the award, determining such claim for compensation.

Section 2 of this bill provides that the effective date shall take
effect immediately.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Last year, volunteer firefighter Arthur Hudson was working on call when
he experienced a cardiac arrest. This incident led Mr. Hudson and his
family to incur both outstanding medical debt and attorney's fees as a
lengthy claim process continued with the Workers' Compensation Board.
Among the 1,800 volunteer fire districts across the State, this incident
could happen to any one of these volunteer firefighters that serve our
communities. Volunteer firefighters, who dedicate their free time to
saving lives, should not be burdened by time-consuming compensation
award cases connected to injury or death that occurs while in the line
of duty.

Currently, the Workers' Compensation Board makes determinations on a
multitude of Volunteer Firefighters' Benefit Law claims every year.  It
often takes long periods of time for the Board to resolve these cases.
According to McKinney's Consolidated Laws of New York, "In practice,
cases are not decided by the Board within 30 days after the claim is
filed... It should be expected that a claim will take several months to
be decided by a Workers' Compensation Law Judge, and in more complicated
cases will not be closed for a year or more."  As such, claimants that
have already suffered an incident or injury often have to wait several
months to a year or more to receive their compensation award.

Claimants like Mr. Hudson comprise the over 100,000 volunteer firefight-
ers across the State who work to save the lives of countless individuals
on a daily basis. This bill would benefit such volunteer firefighters
that file a claim under the Volunteer Firefighters' Benefit Law by expe-
diting the compensation award process. Rather than waiting months for
any movement on their case, claimants would be entitled to a hearing
ordered by the Workers' Compensation Board within one hundred and twenty
days of filing the claim. If this hearing is not granted in that window
of time, the claimant would receive the full payment of their award.
Thus, volunteer firefighters could focus on their life and career rather
than being distracted by unnecessarily lengthy case timelines and asso-
ciated financial strain.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This bill will take effect immediately.