HB488 Summary

• Provides a $100,000 COVID-19 death benefit for first responders (firefighters, peace officers, rescue squad members, and emergency medical services personnel) who contract COVID-19 between March 13, 2020, and December 31, 2022, and die as a result.

• Expands the definition of "first responder" to explicitly include emergency medical services personnel (EMSP) employed by the state or a county or municipality within existing state death benefit programs.

• COVID-19 death benefits apply regardless of the first responder's vaccination status or whether they regularly wore masks or filtration devices, and are not denied due to willful misconduct exclusions that apply to other death causes.

• Makes the COVID-19 death benefit provisions retroactive to any death caused by COVID-19 between March 13, 2020, and December 31, 2022, and makes other amendments retroactive to deaths after January 1, 2019.

• Updates terminology throughout the code sections from listing individual categories to using the umbrella term "first responder" and makes technical, nonsubstantive language revisions to current style.