House Bill 1102 Summary

• Expands definition of "health care provider" to include doctors, qualified nurses, pharmacists, audiologists, speech language pathologists, naturopaths, and any recognized practitioners providing skilled services under supervision or direction of any of these individuals.

• Creates presumption that full-time paid firefighters and law enforcement officers who suffer lung/respiratory disease, hypertension, heart disease, bloodborne pathogen exposure, or occupational cancer in the course of employment are work-related, rebuttable only by clear and convincing evidence.

• Modifies partial disability benefits to cap combined benefits at 90 percent of preinjury weekly wage (after taxes) and allows organization to waive the five-year limit for catastrophic injuries or workers limited to less than 28 hours per week.

• Restructures scholarship fund, educational revolving loan fund, and vocational rehabilitation grant programs to serve spouses and children of deceased or catastrophically injured workers, plus injured workers completing rehabilitation programs; sets annual scholarship limit at $500,000 with $10,000 maximum per applicant per year.

• Changes rehabilitation pilot programs from mandatory to discretionary implementation and requires organization to issue notice of decision within 60 days of receiving final vocational report; allows information sharing with state and federal agencies for administration purposes.