TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) – Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed a invoice that can give law-enforcement officers, firefighters, and different first responders extra time to file employees’ compensation insurance coverage claims for post-traumatic stress dysfunction.
Lawmakers unanimously handed the measure (HB 689) in March, and it’ll take impact July 1.
The invoice, partly, modifications a part of state regulation that units deadlines for submitting employees’ compensation notices and claims primarily based on the “manifestation” of post-traumatic stress dysfunction.
The invoice strikes from utilizing the time period “manifestation” to “diagnosis of the disorder,” which successfully will give first responders extra time. As an instance, first responders can have as much as one 12 months from the time of prognosis to file claims.
“Extending the claim deadline to one year after a PTSD diagnosis allows claims more than one year after a qualifying event,” a House employees evaluation stated.
“Symptoms of PTSD may begin shortly after a traumatic event or may not appear until years after the event.”
In a press release launched Friday by the Florida Police Chiefs Association, House invoice sponsor Mike Giallombardo, R-Cape Coral, stated “first responders mustn’t should undergo by the stigma and debilitating situations of PTSD and dig to search out the braveness to report and search therapy, solely to find they had been too late and don’t qualify for therapy.
HB 689 helps tackle the rising disaster of melancholy, post-traumatic stress dysfunction, and suicide within the ranks of regulation enforcement officers by giving them extra time to hunt and obtain doubtlessly life-changing therapy.”
(©2022 CBS Local Media. All rights reserved. This materials will not be printed, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.)