As the COVID-19 pandemic winds down, workers’ comp executives wonder what the lasting effects of presumptions will be.
As the one-year mark of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has come and gone, vaccine distribution continues to ramp up and hope for a return to normalcy grows.
Even as things are starting to return to normal, a likely lasting change to the workers’ compensation industry has begun. The windfall of COVID-19-related presumptions in many states is top-of-mind among workers’ comp executives, many of whom fear a slippery slope.
A February 2021 NCCI COVID legislative report lists 28 states as having some type of special bill, law or order related to COVID affecting workers’ comp.
Many of these are presumptions mandating coverage under workers’ comp for COVID treatment. Particularly in Q2 and Q3 of 2020, workers’ comp organizations were scrambling to keep pace.
“Compliance and regulatory updates are always paramount, but COVID put a spotlight on that and caused efforts that were already important to become critical,” said Matthew Zender, SVP of…
