Workers Comp

Bill seeks to remove rebuttal clause in firefighter cancer law

Louise Esola

January 17, 2020 Reprints

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Lawmakers in Arizona are considering a bill that would eliminate an insurer’s opportunity to rebut the cause of a firefighter’s cancer in a workers compensation claim.

As introduced on Thursday, S.B. 1160 strikes the language in the state’s two-year-old firefighter cancer presumption law that states a cancer claim “may be rebutted by a preponderance of the evidence that there is a specific cause of the cancer other than an occupational exposure to a carcinogen as defined by the international agency for research on cancer.”

The proposal states that a claim would be “conclusive and irrebuttable” if conditions outlined in the original law are met, such as that there lies a “direct causal connection between the conditions under which the work is performed and the occupational disease,” among other conditions.

Proponents of cancer presumption reforms in workers compensation have said the laws in some states have fallen short, with firefighter unions in Arizona specifically complaining of a wave of litigation surrounding the rebuttals of cancer claims.

The new bill also adds ovarian and breast cancers to the list of cancers presumably caused by exposure to carcinogens while battling fires and adds language that opens presumption to current firefighters who have not yet retired.