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1997 SESSION

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HB 2366 Workers' compensation; carpal tunnel syndrome.

Introduced by: Glenn R. Croshaw | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY:

Workers' compensation; ordinary diseases of life; carpal tunnel syndrome. Establishes criteria for determining when ordinary diseases of life, including carpal tunnel syndrome, are to be treated as occupational diseases for the purpose of receiving workers' compensation. This bill requires that a claimant prove to an absolute degree of medical certainty that the disease arose out of and in the course of employment. The claimant must also prove that the disease either (i) follows as an incident of occupational disease, (ii) is a disease contracted in the course of employment within the medical or a similar field, or (iii) is characteristic of the employment, shown by establishing that the job and similar jobs cause said disease, and that the disease was not caused by conditions outside the workplace. A claimant seeking to have carpal tunnel syndrome treated as an occupational disease for workers' compensation purposes must also have a treating physician who (i) documents the claimant's symptoms and exposure to causative hazards within and without of workplace, (ii) performs and documents a Phalen's test, a carpal canal pressure test, and an examination of Tinel's sign at the wrist, and (iii) performs and documents the results of objective and reproducible electrodiagnostic tests designed to determine the presence or absence of carpal tunnel syndrome. Any claimant who receives workers' compensation benefits for carpal tunnel syndrome may not receive workers' compensation for any permanent partial and permanent total loss and disfigurement that occurs as a result of carpal tunnel syndrome.


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