BILL NUMBER: S4509
SPONSOR: RAMOS
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation to providing
the carrier or employer a credit against permanent partial disability
benefits for temporary partial disability payments made in excess of 130
weeks
 
PURPOSE:
This bill clarifies the legislature's intent to provide carriers a right
to credit against a non-schedule permanent partial disability award.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 Subdivision 3 of subsection (w) of section 15 of the workers'
compensation law, chapter 591 of the laws of 2017, is amended to simpli-
fy the safety-valve process to give the carrier/employer a credit
against permanent partial disability benefits for temporary partial
disability payments made in excess of 130 weeks.
Section 2 Sets the effective date
 
JUSTIFICATION:
This bill clarifies the legislature's intent to provide carriers a right
to credit against a non-schedule permanent partial disability award when
they have (1) paid in excess of 130 weeks of temporary partial disabili-
ty benefits pursuant to subdivision 5 of section 15 of the workers'
compensation law and (2) the injured worker has reached maximum medical
improvement.
In practice, the Workers' Compensation Board is misinterpreting the
intent of statute, permitting carriers to take credit by counting 130
calendar weeks from the date of injury, even if the claimant has not
lost time from work for all, or any, of those first 130 weeks. Thus, a
claimant who remained working and subsequently loses time from work, is
unfairly penalized. The Workers' Compensation Board has also made it
difficult for claimants to obtain rulings on the issue of whether they
have reached maximum medical improvement prior to 130 weeks from the
date of injury, creating a due process concern that this amendment seeks
to resolve.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-24: S8344 (Ramos) Passed the Senate / A8950 (Reyes) Referred to
Labor
 
FISCAL IMPACT:
TBD
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.