Missouri bill would add PTSD to first responder coverage

A Missouri lawmaker has introduced a bill to modify the state’s workers compensation laws to make post-traumatic stress disorder compensable for emergency workers.

H.B. 1263, prefiled Monday by Rep. Gretchen Bangert, D-Greater St. Louis, adds post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of occupational injuries or illnesses listed as presumptively compensable for first responders. The bill states that PTSD will be presumed to be compensable for active emergency workers diagnosed with the disorder by a psychiatrist or psychologist within three years of the last active date of service, unless it has been shown to be non-service connected by a “preponderance of the evidence.”

The legislation also clarifies the definition of emergency workers, specifying that those covered under the occupational disease statute include law enforcing officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, air ambulance pilots and air ambulance nurses.

If signed into law, the legislation would apply to claims arising on or after Aug. 28, 2020.