The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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PETITION OF:
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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PETITION OF:
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In the Year Two Thousand and Seven.
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An Act relative to disability or death caused by contagious diseases, presumption . |
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the
contrary, and for the purposes of any death, disability or medical services
claim including claims under Chapter 32, Chapter 41 and Chapter 152 of the
General Laws, any contagious disease, resulting in disability or death to a
full-time uniformed member of a paid police department, fire department or municipal
emergency medical service shall, if he or she successfully passed a physical
examination on entry into such service or subsequent to such entry, which
examination failed to reveal any evidence of such condition, be presumed to
have been suffered in the line of duty, unless it is shown by a preponderance
of the evidence that non-service connected risk factors or non-service
connected accidents or hazards undergone, or any combination thereof, caused
such incapacity. The provisions of this section shall only apply if the
disabling or fatal condition is a type of contagious disease which may, in
general, result from exposure to blood and other body fluids of the sick,
excluding the common cold.
(2) The provisions of this section shall not apply to any person serving in
such positions for fewer than five years at the time that such condition is
first discovered, or should have been discovered. Any person first discovering
any such condition within five years of the last date on which such person actively
so served shall be eligible to apply for benefits hereunder, and such benefits,
if granted, shall be payable as of the date on which the employee last received
regular compensation. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any
person serving in such position unless such person shall first establish that
he has regularly responded to calls for police, fire or emergency medical
service during some portion of the period of his service in such position.
(3) The provisions of this section shall also apply to any condition of
Hepatitis A, B, or C, Tuberculosis, HIV, and any other contagious disease which
is found by regulation by the commissioner of the department of public health
to have a statistically significant correlation with police, fire or emergency
medical service.
(4) Nothing herein shall preclude a member from applying for and receiving
benefits under section seven or section nine, subject to the provisions of said
sections.