Presumptive Disability Law in Utah

Presumptive Health Initiative

CODE PART:
Utah Code
Title 49 Utah State Retirement and Insurance Benefit Act
Chapter 16 fire fighters’ Retirement Act
49-16-102 Definitions
Title 34A Utah Labor Code
Chapter 02 Workers’ Compensation Act
34A-2-901 Workers’ compensation presumption for emergency medical services providers
34A-3-113 Presumption of workers’ compensation benefits for firefighters.

Utah Legislative Website

DESCRIPTION:
49-16-102
Definitions

  1. “fire fighter service” means employment normally requiring an average of 2,080 hours of regularly scheduled employment per year rendered by a member who is a fire fighter service employee trained in fire fighter techniques and assigned to a position of hazardous duty with a regularly constituted fire department, but does not include secretarial staff or other similar employees.
  2. “fire fighter service employee” means an employee of a participating employer who provides fire fighter service under this chapter. An employee of a regularly constituted fire department who does not perform fire fighter service is not a fire fighter service employee.
  3. “Line-of-duty death or disability” means a death or any physical or mental disability resulting from external force, violence, or disease directly resulting from fire fighter service.
    1. A paid fire fighter who has five years of fire fighter service credit is eligible for a line-of-duty death or disability resulting from heart disease, lung disease, or respiratory tract condition.
    2. A paid fire fighter who receives a service connected disability benefit for more than six months due to violence or illness other than heart disease, lung disease, or respiratory tract condition, and then returns to paid fire fighter service, may not be eligible for a line-of-duty death or disability benefit due to heart disease, lung disease, or respiratory tract condition for two years after the fire fighter returned to work unless clear and convincing evidence is presented that the heart disease, lung disease, or respiratory tract condition was directly a result of fire fighter service.
  4. “Participating employer” means an employer which meets the participation requirements of Section 49-16-201.
  5. “Regularly constituted fire department” means a fire department that employs a fire chief who performs fire fighter service for at least 2,080 hours of regularly scheduled paid employment per year.
  6. “System” means the fire fighters’ Retirement System created under this chapter.
    1. “Volunteer fire fighter” means any individual that is not regularly employed as a fire fighter service employee, but who:
      1. has been trained in fire fighter techniques and skills;
      2. continues to receive regular fire fighter training; and
      3. is on the rolls of a legally organized volunteer fire department which provides ongoing training and serves a political subdivision of the state.
    2. An individual that volunteers assistance but does not meet the requirements of Subsection (10)(a) is not a volunteer fire fighter for purposes of this chapter.
  8. “Years of service credit” means the number of periods, each to consist of 12 full months as determined by the board, whether consecutive or not, during which a fire fighter service employee was employed by a participating employer or received full-time pay while on sick leave, including any time the fire fighter service employee was absent in the service of the United States on military duty.

34A-2-901
Workers’ compensation presumption for emergency medical services providers

  1. An emergency medical services provider who claims to have contracted a disease, as defined by Section 78B-8-401, as a result of a significant exposure in the performance of his duties as an emergency medical services provider, is presumed to have contracted the disease by accident during the course of his duties as an emergency medical services provider if:
    1. his employment or service as an emergency medical services provider in this state commenced prior to July 1, 1988, and he tests positive for a disease during the tenure of his employment or service, or within three months after termination of his employment or service; or
    2. the individual’s employment or service as an emergency medical services provider in this state commenced on or after July 1, 1988, and he tests negative for any disease at the time his employment or service commenced, and again three months later, and he subsequently tests positive during the tenure of his employment or service, or within three months after termination of his employment or service.
  2. Each emergency medical services agency shall inform the emergency medical services providers that it employs or utilizes of the provisions and benefits of this section at commencement of and termination of employment or service.

34A-3-113.
Presumption of workers’ compensation benefits for firefighters.

  1. As used in this section:
      1. “Firefighter” means a member, including a volunteer member, as described in Subsection 67-20-2(5)(b)(ii), or a member paid on call, of a fire department or other organization that provides fire suppression and other fire-related service who is responsible for or is in a capacity that includes responsibility for the extinguishment of fires.
      2. “Firefighter” does not include a person whose job description, duties, or responsibilities do not include direct involvement in fire suppression.
    2. “Presumptive cancer” means one or more of the following cancers:
      1. pharynx;
      2. esophagus;
      3. lung; and
      4. mesothelioma.
  2. If a firefighter who contracts a presumptive cancer meets the requirements of Subsection (3), there is a rebuttable presumption that:
    1. the presumptive cancer was contracted arising out of and in the course of employment; and
    2. the presumptive cancer was not contracted by a willful act of the firefighter.
  3. To be entitled to the rebuttable presumption described in Subsection (2):
    1. during the time of employment as a firefighter, the firefighter undergoes annual physical examinations;
    2. the firefighter shall have been employed as a firefighter for eight years or more and
      regularly responded to firefighting or emergency calls within the eight-year period; and
    3. if a firefighter has used tobacco, the firefighter provides documentation from a physician that indicates that the firefighter has not used tobacco for the eight years preceding reporting the presumptive cancer to the employer or division.
  4. A presumption established under this section may be rebutted by a preponderance of the evidence.
  5. If a firefighter who contracts a presumptive cancer is employed as a firefighter by more than one employer and qualifies for the presumption under Subsection (2), and that presumption has not been rebutted, the employer and insurer at the time of the last substantial exposure to risk of the presumptive cancer are liable under this chapter pursuant to Section 34A-3-105.
  6. A cause of action subject to the presumption under this section is considered to arise on the date after May 12, 2015, that the employee:
    1. suffers disability from the occupational disease;
    2. knows, or in the exercise of reasonable diligence should have known, that the occupational disease is caused by employment; and
    3. files a claim as provided in Section 34A-3-108.