Legislature(2021 - 2022)BARNES 124
03/05/2021 03:15 PM House LABOR & COMMERCE
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB99 | |
| HB45 | |
| Marijuana Control Board | |
| HB45 | |
| Occupational Safety and Health Review Board | |
| Board of Physical and Occupational Therapy | |
| Board of Registration for Architects, Engineers & Land Surveyors | |
| Workers' Compensation Appeals Commission | |
| Board of Pharmacy | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | HB 99 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 45 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
HB 45-WORKERS' COMP. AND CONTAGIOUS DISEASES
3:37:28 PM
CO-CHAIR SPOHNHOLZ announced that the next order of business
would be HOUSE BILL NO. 45, "An Act relating to presumption of
compensability for workers' compensation claims related to
contagious diseases; and providing for an effective date."
[HB 45 was held for discussion later in the meeting.]
HB 45-WORKERS' COMP. AND CONTAGIOUS DISEASES
3:59:47 PM
CO-CHAIR SPOHNHOLZ announced that the next order of business
would be a return to HOUSE BILL NO. 45, "An Act relating to
presumption of compensability for workers' compensation claims
related to contagious diseases; and providing for an effective
date."
4:00:01 PM
REPRESENTATIVE ANDY JOSEPHSON, Alaska State Legislature,
explained that the idea behind HB 45 came from seeing Michigan
and Minnesota lead the nation in March and April 2020 in
offering protections to first responders in the form of workers'
compensation in the instance of a disaster declaration. During
the thirtieth Alaska State Legislature, in 2020, the legislature
passed Senate Bill 241 in late March, which stood as the
emergency declaration until November 15, 2020. He stated that
this bill provided support for Alaskans in a variety of ways,
such as mandating a moratorium on rent. In that bill, he shared
that the House adopted Amendment 5, which offered workers'
compensation protection for first responders who had suffered
some exposure to COVID-19. He said that municipalities are
litigating what the legislature meant in that bill, and are
asking for proof beyond what was intended that the exposure
occurred at work. He shared that HB 45 acknowledges that there
will be future pandemics and intends to show first responders
and other essential workers that the government "has their
backs." It creates a presumption that only exists during a time
that an emergency declaration has been declared and would
provide workers' compensation to individuals that contract a
pandemic disease. He explained that these individuals would
have to prove that the disease was contracted due to exposure at
the workplace. He opined that Alaska has fortunately done
"quite well" during the COVID-19 pandemic, although Alaska has
tragically lost "over 100 people" and many others have gotten
sick, he said that many people recover relatively quickly and so
the burden imposed by the bill would not be enormous.
4:04:33 PM
CHAIR SPOHNHOLZ offered clarification that Alaska has lost over
300 lives to COVID-19.
4:05:19 PM
ELISE SORUM-BIRK, Staff, Representative Andy Josephson, Alaska
State Legislature, on behalf of Representative Josephson, prime
sponsor, offered a PowerPoint presentation entitled, "House Bill
45; Frontline Worker Presumption of Compensability," [hard copy
included in the committee packet], and began on slide 2,
"Background: COVID-19 and SB 241," which read as follows
[original punctuation provided]:
• In the spring of 2020, the Legislature came
together quickly to pass SB 241, an omnibus
emergency response bill.
• Amended into bill on the House Floor was a
workers' compensation presumption of
compensability for first responders and medical
professionals.
• Amendment 5 offered by Rep. Josephson and Rep.
Kopp became section 15 Chapter 10 of Session Law.
This provision expired [15 November] 2020 and the
Governor opted to exclude this protection from
his newly declared disaster declaration leaving
these individuals unprotected.
MS. SORUM-BRIK moved to slide 3, "What is a 'presumption of
compensability'?" and paraphrased the slide, which read as
follows [original punctuation provided]:
• Certain occupational groups are more likely to
contract certain illnesses
• It is difficult to track where certain illnesses
come from or to link an illness directly to a
workplace
• "Presumptive compensability" law allows an
assumption to be made that an illness is linked
to the nature of an individual's work
• Can be "rebuttable" or "non rebuttable"
• If a presumption exists, an impacted employee may
receive workers' compensation benefits unless
their employer successfully rebuts the claim
MS. SORUM-BIRK moved to slide 4, "SB 241 provision vs. HB 45,"
and paraphrased from the slide, which read as follows [original
punctuation provided]:
SB 241
• Covered: firefighters, peace officers, EMTs,
paramedics, health care workers
• Non rebuttable
• Requires the individual to have been "exposed" at
work
• COVID 19 specific
HB 45
• Covers groups previously included in SB 241
• Adds grocery clerks, teachers, childcare workers
• Allows other similar professions to be added by
DOLWD Commissioner
• Rebuttable with "clear and convincing evidence"
• Requires that an individual work outside the home
within 2 weeks of diagnosis and have direct
contact with members of the public
• Applicable during all public health emergencies
(declared under the Alaska Disaster Act) caused
by contagious disease
4:09:12 PM
MS. SORUM-BIRK advanced to slide 5, "Sectional Analysis," and
paraphrased from the slide, which read as follows [original
punctuation provided]:
Section 1 - Establishes a presumption for frontline
workers who are actively working with the public
during a declared public health emergency cause by a
contagious disease
Subsection (a) - Outlines metric for establishing
presumption
Subsection (b) - Outlines how presumption may be
rebutted and gives DOLWD Commissioner the authority to
add more occupational groups if needed
Subsection (c) - Provides definitions
Section 2 - Makes coverage retroactive to Nov 15th,
2020 (date at which SB 241 provision expired) for
first responders and health care workers
Section 3 - Provides for an immediate effective date
for newly covered occupations
MS. SORUM-BIRK proceeded to slide 6, "First Responders," and
explained that first responders would be addressed specifically
by the bill because COVID-19 has been the biggest cause of
police officer deaths in the past year. Firefighters were found
to be 15 percent more likely to be infected by COVID-19 in New
York City, she said.
4:13:13 PM
MS. SORUM-BIRK proceeded to slide 7, "Health Care Workers," and
explained that these workers often have the most direct-contact
with COVID-19 positive patients. In Alaska, medical workers
claims made up the majority of time lost claims for workers'
compensation, meaning that individuals working in the medical
field were being required to go home and quarantine due to
exposure to COVID-19.
MS. SORUM-BIRK moved to slide 8, "Teachers and Child Care
Workers," and explained that although there was a belief earlier
in the pandemic that children may not be as susceptible to the
virus, it has now been found that children do play a role in
transmission of COVID-19. She noted that the Kaiser Family
Foundation did a study that found that a majority of teachers
are in a high-risk category either due to age or medical
condition and may feel nervous about returning to the classroom.
She stated that child care centers often employ low-wage workers
and do not offer benefits, and all public health restrictions on
child care facilities were lifted "pretty early" in the
pandemic.
MS. SORUM-BIRK proceeded to slide 9, "Grocery Store Workers,"
and explained that these are also often low-wage jobs and that
there are studies "out there" that show that there are high
infection rates among grocery store workers.
MS. SORUM-BIRK advanced to slide 10, "Status of COVID-19
Presumptions in the U.S." which depicted a map of the U.S. that
she explained was put together using data from the National
Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) [included in committee
packets]. She noted that the blue colored states on the map are
places where executive orders have been put into place; states
in green are places where state legislatures have put COVID-19
presumptions in place. She said that some states have broad
presumptions that would apply to all essential workers, like
California, and others have narrow presumptions.
4:17:35 PM
MS. SORUM-BIRK explained that there was a National Council on
Compensation Insurance (NCCI) cost study [included in the
committee packet] that was done and noted that she looked into
what COVID-19 has looked like in the workplace in Alaska. She
said that the infection rate overall in Alaska in December 2020
was 5.9 percent, and the lowest scenario analyzed in the NCCI
study was 5 percent, meaning that Alaska was close to the lowest
scenario. The 5.9 percent number refers to the lowest
population, she noted, and the Department of Labor & Workforce
Development estimated by using workers' compensation claims that
only 1 in 12 COVID-19 cases in Alaska in 2020 were work related.
In 2020, only 3 percent of COVID-19 cases have resulted in
workers' compensation claims, she continued.
4:19:17 PM
CO-CHAIR SPOHNHOLZ invited questions from the committee.
4:19:29 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SNYDER asked Representative Josephson about the
definition of "grocery store" in AS 44.25.048, noting that the
definition is fairly brief. She stated that she wants to ensure
that it applies to all varieties of food retail stores in
Alaska.
REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHSON responded that he had not considered
whether the definition would be expansive enough to cover all of
the varieties of food dispensers that exist in Alaska.
4:20:53 PM
MS. SORUM-BIRK provided clarification that that is the only
statutory definition that exists for grocery stores.
REPRESENTATIVE SNYDER commented that she would hate to see
smaller stores excluded due to an issue of interpretation.
4:21:55 PM
REPRESENTATIVE MCCARTY asked Ms. Sorum-Birk if the required
emergency declaration that would trigger HB 45 could apply to a
portion of Alaska or would need to apply to the entire state.
MS. SORUM-BIRK responded that there could be a regional or
localized pandemic and the governor could declare an emergency
for particular municipalities if it were related to a contagious
disease.
REPRESENTATIVE MCCARTY asked, if there was an outbreak of
influenza, whether the employers in that community be required
to pay workers' compensation benefits.
MS. SORUM-BIRK responded that the governor has to have declared
an emergency. She said that if there was an outbreak so severe
that the governor had declared that an emergency had occurred,
then it could be a possibility, but for the common cold or
seasonal flu it would be unlikely for a governor to declare a
disaster emergency.
REPRESENTATIVE MCCARTY asked if there is a definition of
"disaster emergency."
MS. SORUM-BIRK responded the bill sponsor is using the disaster
emergency definition found in the Alaska Disaster Act, located
in AS 26.23.020(c).
4:25:12 PM
CO-CHAIR SPOHNHOLZ asked Ms. Sorum-Birk if she could supply that
definition to the committee. She agreed that it is unlikely
that a governor would declare an emergency for the flu, but that
it could potentially happen in the case of a disease like
tuberculosis.
4:26:09 PM
REPRESENTATIVE KAUFMAN asked Representative Josephson about the
possibility of the bill requiring employers to be "proving a
negative." He said he is concerned about setting a precedent
and opening the employers to liability and the possibility of
discrimination against employees that are already high-risk.
REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHSON responded that in around 2008, the
legislature and the governor at the time passed a bill which
said that firefighters and related professionals who had
exposure to carcinogenic material could receive workers'
compensation upon sufficient evidence that the workplace is
where the exposure occurred. He opined that it is not fantastic
coverage because it is a sixty-month bill and it not overly
generous. The point, he said, is that there is some history for
covering something that is unseen. He stated that the failure
to cover these sorts of exposures may cause people to not want
to enter certain professions, such as grocery store positions
that pay minimum-wage. He restated that more police officers
have died from COVID-19 exposure in the last year than from
anything else. He said that he understands Representative
Kaufman's point but does not think it would be likely to be an
issue.
4:31:27 PM
CO-CHAIR SPOHNHOLZ noted that it could be helpful to have Lori
Wing-Heier, Director of the Division of Insurance, speak to the
committee and answer questions and share her perspective.
4:32:25 PM
REPRESENTATIVE MCCARTY asked for definitive numbers of workers
that may have been impacted in the last year by COVID-19.
MS. SORUM-BIRK responded that the Department of Labor &
Workforce Development would be best suited to answer this
question. She shared that the department released a thorough
report [included in committee packets] detailing the number of
people impacted by COVID-19.
4:33:48 PM
CHARLES COLLINS, Director, Workers' Compensation Division,
Department of Labor and Workforce Development, responded that
the department has tracked claims throughout the pandemic, and
as of last week there were 2,386 claims reported. He shared
that just about 10 percent of claims were denied. Of the claims
that were approved, the department categorized the claims by
occupation. He said that he would be glad to use this
information to glean any specific data the committee would like
to see.
REPRESENTATIVE MCCARTY responded that he would be interested in
seeing numbers to see how much of an impact this bill would
have. He asked how individuals who go home sick from work [from
a common sickness] are differentiated from individuals who have
to go to the hospital.
MR. COLLINS responded that of the claims the department received
this year, only 694 of the claims were paid some type of
benefit. In situations where there may have been exposure,
Alaska employers might shut down business and send every
employee to be tested, which could result in a high number of
claims, but he shared that most of those situations resulted in
a "zero bill." He explained that that is why there were 2,386
claims but only 694 claims that were paid. He shared that even
so, this number is quite high, and resulted in a payout of
$850,000 in benefits. The majority of this cost comes from
cases where medical transfers were necessary, he said,
particularly if the individual requiring care was in a remote
location.
4:38:11 PM
CO-CHAIR SPOHNHOLZ announced that HB 45 was held over.