Essential workers are lauded for their service and hailed as heroes. But in most states nurses, first responders and frontline workers who get COVID-19 on the job have no guarantee they'll qualify for workers' comp to cover lost wages and medical care.
FILE - In this April 14, 2020, file photo FDNY firefighters gather to applaud medical workers as attending physician Mollie Williams, left, wears personal protective equipment due to COVID-19 concerns outside Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York. Essential workers are lauded for their service and hailed as everyday heroes.
Nurse Dori Harrington of Manchester, Connecticut, said she got COVID-19 caring for infected patients at a nursing home, with limited protective gear. Harrington was severely ill and missed five weeks of work, yet her workers’ comp claim was initially denied on grounds that her disease was “not distinctively associated with, nor peculiar” to her job.
Dealing with job-related injuries is fairly straightforward, but diseases have always been trickier for workers’ comp, and COVID-19 seems to be in a class of its own. “When you are talking about certain kinds of frontline workers, out in the trenches, day in and day out, that person starts to look like the coal miner who is routinely exposed to a hazardous health condition because of their work,” he explained.Think hospital and nursing home clinical staff, first responders, and meat packing workers, among others.
At the federal level, there’s a push to protect workers at the Transportation Security Administration and the Postal Service.The issue involves significant costs and hard lobbying. It pits workers, labor groups, lawyers, and social welfare advocates against employers, insurers, and even local and state governments that employ frontline workers.
“From what we see so far, the average claims cost associated with a COVID-19 claim is less than the loss associated with a typical workers’ comp claim,” said Holzberger. “Going to the hospital and getting a test is a lot less than getting neck or back surgery.”For essential workers who got COVID-19 and suffered through fever, fatigue, shortness of breath, racking cough, and other symptoms, the denial or acceptance of a workers’ comp claim can have a profound impact.
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