2017-2018 Bill 3347: Injury and Personal Injury Definitions - South Carolina Legislature Online

1 South Carolina General Assembly 2 122nd Session, 2017-2018 3 4 H. 3347 5 6 STATUS INFORMATION 7 8 General Bill 9 Sponsors: Reps. Duckworth, Yow and Henegan 10 Document Path: l:\council\bills\agm\19041wab17.docx 11 12 Introduced in the House on January 10, 2017 13 Currently residing in the House Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry 14 15 Summary: Injury and personal injury definitions 16 17 18 HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS 19 20 Date Body Action Description with journal page number 21 12/15/2016 House Prefiled 22 12/15/2016 House Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry 23 1/10/2017 House Introduced and read first time ( House Journalpage 169) 24 1/10/2017 House Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry (House 25 Journalpage 169) 26 2/8/2017 House Member(s) request name added as sponsor: Henegan 27 28 View the latest legislative information at the website 29 30 31 VERSIONS OF THIS BILL 32 33 12/15/2016 34 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A BILL 10 11 TO AMEND SECTION 421160, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH 12 CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE DEFINITIONS OF 13 “INJURY” AND “PERSONAL INJURY” IN WORKERS’ 14 COMPENSATION LAW, SO AS TO REVISE THE 15 DEFINITIONS TO MODIFY THE REQUIREMENTS FOR 16 FIREFIGHTERS SEEKING WORKERS’ COMPENSATION 17 FOR PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY POST TRAUMATIC 18 STRESS DISORDER ARISING FROM HIS DIRECT 19 INVOLVEMENT IN A SIGNIFICANT TRAUMATIC 20 EXPERIENCE. 21 22 Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South 23 Carolina: 24 25 SECTION 1. Section 421160 of the 1976 Code is amended to 26 read: 27 28 “Section 421160. (A) ‘Injury’ and ‘personal injury’ mean only 29 injury by accident arising out of and in the course of employment 30 and shall not include a disease in any form, except when it results 31 naturally and unavoidably from the accident and except such 32 diseases as are compensable under the provisions of Chapter 11 of 33 this title. In construing this section, an accident arising out of and 34 in the course of employment includes employment of an employee 35 of a municipality outside the corporate limits of the municipality 36 when the employment was ordered by a duly authorized employee 37 of the municipality. 38 (B)(1) Stress, mental injuries, and mental illness arising out of 39 and in the course of employment unaccompanied by physical 40 injury and resulting in mental illness or injury are not considered a 41 personal injury unless the employee establishes, by a 42 preponderance of the evidence:

[3347] 2 1 (1a) that the employee’s employment conditions causing 2 the stress, mental injury, or mental illness were extraordinary and 3 unusual in comparison to the normal conditions of the particular 4 employment; and 5 (2b) the medical causation between the stress, mental 6 injury, or mental illness, and the stressful employment conditions 7 by medical evidence. 8 (2) The provisions of this item do not apply, however, if the 9 employee is employed as a firefighter and if the impairment 10 causing the stress, mental injury, or mental illness is medically 11 diagnosed as post traumatic stress disorder arising from the 12 firefighter’s direct involvement in a significant traumatic 13 experience or situation, without regard to if the experience or 14 situation was extraordinary or unusual in comparison to the normal 15 working conditions of a firefighter’s employment. 16 (C) Stress, mental injuries, heart attacks, strokes, embolisms, or 17 aneurisms arising out of and in the course of employment 18 unaccompanied by physical injury are not considered compensable 19 if they result from any event or series of events which are 20 incidental to normal employer/employee relations including, but 21 not limited to, personnel actions by the employer such as 22 disciplinary actions, work evaluations, transfers, promotions, 23 demotions, salary reviews, or terminations, except when these 24 actions are taken in an extraordinary and unusual manner. 25 (D) Stress, mental injuries, and mental illness alleged to have 26 been aggravated by a workrelated physical injury may not be 27 found compensable unless the aggravation is: 28 (1) admitted by the employer/carrier; 29 (2) noted in a medical record of an authorized physician that, 30 in the physician’s opinion, the condition is at least in part causally 31 related or connected to the injury or accident, whether or not the 32 physician refers the employee for treatment of the condition; 33 (3) found to be causally related or connected to the accident 34 or injury after evaluation by an authorized psychologist or 35 psychiatrist; or 36 (4) noted in a medical record or report of the employee’s 37 physician as causally related or connected to the injury or accident. 38 (E) In medically complex cases, an employee shall establish by 39 medical evidence that the injury arose in the course of 40 employment. For purposes of this subsection, ‘medically complex 41 cases’ means sophisticated cases requiring highly scientific 42 procedures or techniques for diagnosis or treatment excluding 43 MRIs, CAT scans, xrays, or other similar diagnostic techniques.

[3347] 3 1 (F) The word ‘accident’ as used in this title must not be 2 construed to mean a series of events in employment, of a similar or 3 like nature, occurring regularly, continuously, or at frequent 4 intervals in the course of such employment, over extended periods 5 of time. Any injury or disease attributable to such causes must be 6 compensable only if culminating in a compensable repetitive 7 trauma injury pursuant to Section 421172 or an occupational 8 disease pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 11 of this title. 9 (G) As used in this section,: 10 (1) ‘Medical evidence’ means expert opinion or testimony 11 stated to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, documents, 12 records, or other material that is offered by a licensed health care 13 provider. 14 (2) ‘Firefighter’ means a firefighter employed by state or 15 local government. A volunteer firefighter engaged by the state or 16 local government is also considered a firefighter employed by the 17 state or local government for purposes of this section .” 18 19 SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the 20 Governor. 21 XX 22

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