| Workers' Compensation Reform
California Nurses Push for Workers’ Comp Reform
Nurses in California are pushing for reforms to their state’s workers’ compensation system to make it easier to receive benefits for certain work-related injuries.
California nurses and hospitals are locked in a precedent-setting fight over injury compensation that could benefit nurses but cost hospitals hundreds of millions annually.
Proposed legislation would declare that various infectious diseases or back and neck injuries suffered by nurses stemmed from their job and are eligible for workers’ compensation benefits unless hospitals can prove otherwise.
Assembly Bill 1994, pushed by the powerful California Nurses Association, piggybacks upon an exception in state law adopted years ago for peace officers and firefighters.
AB 1994, applying to more than 350,000 hospital workers, would break new ground in two ways: It would apply to private employees and target public health, rather than public safety, workers.
Opponents argue that if such exceptions are granted to nurses, other private workers in risky jobs will demand them, creating a fiscal nightmare for a stressed workers’ comp system.
If passed, this legislation would shift the burden of proof for these types of workplace injuries and illnesses from the worker to the insurance company, which would have to prove that the illness or injury was not a result of the worker”s job.
